"Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity."
~ Albert Camus
Image of the day (David Winston):
BODY
~ Have a Bad Pain in the Butt? Could Be Piriformis Syndrome -- "If it hurts to touch a point that’s in the middle of one side of your buttocks, you probably have piriformis syndrome. This chronic condition is very difficult to diagnose, because other injuries may produce exactly the same symptoms."
~ Male Pattern Baldness Triggered by Stress and Health -- "While genetics has a lot to do with male pattern baldness, often the cause is not family history, but rather lifestyle factors that control the extent of hair loss. If a man is physically and emotionally healthy, his hair will reflect his well-being because it will be radiant and shiny and the scalp will be moist, not dry and flaky."
~ Knock Out Your New Year’s Resolution -- "You made that New Year’s resolution to get back in shape - purchased a gym membership, started eating healthily and were set on getting in shape. You went to the gym day in and day out, burning calories, feeling the burn and ate baked chicken instead of KFC, enjoyed salads with light vinaigrette instead of coleslaw swamped with mayo. You were on a mission - and you were dedicated to it - until February."
~ Big Jim's Plateau-Busting Surge Routine -- "We love the workouts that make you ache, the ones that make you shake your fist at the heavens above. This one involves doing one-rep maxes with 60-second negatives, followed by some nice drop sets." Ouch!
~ Exercise of the Week: The Iso Push-up -- "It's probably the simplest training method imaginable, but it's oh-so effective in promoting shoulder stability and building power and strength. All it takes is a minute and thirty seconds, three times a week."
~ Low-Fat Diet Recommended By Federal Government May Have Unintended Consequences -- "It is common knowledge that obesity levels in America have been recorded at record levels, almost reaching the point of an epidemic." The low-fat, high carb diet the government pushes is the result of lobbyists, not research.
~ Drop Down and Give Me More Than She’s Doing -- "Some like to compete, but group training isn't for everyone."
~ Reduced "exercise capacity" an ominous sign -- "People who have trouble exercising on a treadmill are at increased risk of suffering a heart attack or other heart-related event and of dying, according to results of a study."
~ Low-Carb Diets Better Than Low-Fat Diets at Preventing Diabetes (HealthDay) -- "A diet low in carbohydrates but high in animal fat and protein doesn't seem to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, a new study claims." Keen sense of the obvious.
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Five Mistakes I Have Made With Personal Development Information -- "I have been reading, listening to and watching various personal development information for a few years now. I have noticed a few mistakes I have made. And so I have made a few adjustments to how I take in and use this information. These adjustments have helped me make more practical progress."
~ Closing the Circuit: Helen Mayberg's research could revolutionize depression treatment -- "Time to step back and ask ourselves questions such as, "What is going On", "What is Depression", "What Treatments Work, and What is the Latest Research". Fortunately, thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine, Jill Suttie offers a fascinating answers to those questions-and more. Enjoy."
~ Personal Questions in Therapy -- "The classic response to a client's question is to turn it back on the client, treating the question as revealing of a particular need. "I see it is really important to you to know..." This technique makes me flinch."
~ The Toll of Subtle Racism -- "Blatant, overt racism is easy to spot -- but what about subtle racism? And are there measurable cognitive effects that come as a result of witnessing not-so-obvious racism?"
~ The Science of Kissing [The Intersection] -- "Ah, February... that very special time of year for celebrating the one we love (or bemoaning the greeting card industry). While flipping through the month's Scientific American, I came upon this article about 'Why We Kiss' and immediately found myself intrigued."
~ Identification Of Brain Circuitry That Drives Drug-Seeking Compulsion -- "In experiments with rats, researchers have identified the change in brain circuitry that drives development of a compulsion to seek drugs, even when that compulsion is self-destructive. The researchers demonstrated the function of the circuitry by selectively switching off drug-seeking in the animals. They said their findings show the key role of the brain region, known as the striatum, which is a region activated by reward."
~ When Cognitive Dissonance Doesn't Matter -- "Psychologists have labelled the cause of this drive towards self-consistency 'cognitive dissonance'. In the classic experiment on cognitive dissonance conducted in the late 1950s experimenters discovered that people will work extraordinarily hard to present a consistent front to the world."
~ Stress During Pregnancy Associated With Schizophrenia Of Children -- "A recent article in the Archives of General Psychiatry reports that women who undergo an extremely stressful event during the first three months of pregnancy have an increased risk of having children who develop schizophrenia. Researcher Ali S. Khashan of the University of Machester, England and colleagues note that there is some consensus that a mother's psychological state influences her unborn baby."
~ The ABCs of Remaining Cool in a Crazy World -- "Emotional intelligence and mastery skills are not just a benefit these days; they’ve become a necessity. This post aims to address that need. It aims to provide psychologically tested methods, with a touch of Zen, to handle anything that happens in a mature and powerful manner."
~ The Myth of the Mozart Effect -- " Whenever stalled on an intractable problem, Einstein reportedly reached for his violin. He played to disentangle his brain and clarify the question at hand. Mozart especially did the trick. Einstein loved Mozart’s highly organized, intensely patterned sonatas. He felt, as many before him, that music and the reasoning intellect were linked."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The Cycle of Time: The Chinese New Year -- "This 7 February marks the start of the New Year in China. The start of a New Year is a return to the beginning while recognizing that there has been a passage of time. Every ritual repetition of a cosmic event is preceded by a symbolic retrogression to the original chaos. As Mircea Eliade pointed out in his Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth, 'In order to be created anew, the old world must first be annihilated.'"
~ Quarter of U.S. women suffer domestic violence: CDC -- "About a quarter of U.S. women suffer domestic violence, U.S. health officials reported on Thursday, with ongoing health problems that one activist likened to the effects of living in a war zone."
~ A Question of Ideology -- "Where each of the Democratic candidates might leave the country ideologically could ultimately be the most lasting determinant of the success of the next presidency."
~ Why Personality Matters -- "On the eve of Super Tuesday, Berkeley Professor George Lakoff argues that the US Democrats need to take values as seriously as they do policy."
~ Is religion losing the millennial generation? -- "If you asked college students in an introductory religion course to create their own faith, what might you get? Dessertism, which insists that the stomach is the way to the soul, and Zen Boozism, which seeks self-discovery through alcohol — for starters. But you’d also see a growing problem for the ‘traditional’ faiths that treat the young as an afterthought."
~ Only One Candidate Can Achieve Universal Health Coverage -- "Hillary's plan would insure nearly twice as many people as Obama's."
~ How Obama Could Create a Long-Term Democratic Majority -- "More than a single presidency is at stake -- the future of the Democratic party is."
~ What Romney Could Have Done -- "As the former governor drops out of the presidential race, Mark Halperin charts 10 things his campaign could have changed."
~ Clinton, Obama: Why Not Both? -- "Some Democrats have visions of a dream ticket that marries Obama's energy with Clinton's expertise. But it's only a dream." Can't see either one wanting to be VP.
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Life: A Gene-Centric View -- "It's not everyday you have Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter on a stage talking for an hour about "Life: A Gene-Centric View". That it occured in Germany, where the culture has been resistant to open discussion of genetics, and at DLD, the Digital, Life, Design conference organized by Hubert Burda Media in Munich, a high-level event for the digital elite — the movers and shakers of the Internet — was particularly interesting. This event was a continuation of the Edge "Life: What a Concept!" meeting in August, 2008." Includes video.
~ String theory: From Newton to Einstein and beyond -- "To understand the ideas and aims of string theory, it's useful to look back and see how physics has developed from Newton's time to the present day. One crucial idea that has driven physics since Newton's time is that of unification: the attempt to explain seemingly different phenomena by a single overarching concept."
~ As the End of Analog TV Approaches, Converter Boxes Are Scarce -- "The government began issuing $40 vouchers for DTV converters as a part of its Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program on Jan. 1. The only problem is the converters are nowhere to be found."
~ Yang Struggles to Keep the Microsoft Wolf From Yahoo's Door -- "The CEO of the embattled internet company hopes to avoid a takeover, while trying to reassure his workers -- even though many stand to lose their jobs regardless of what happens."
~ Ecotopias Aren't Just for Hippies Anymore -- and They're Sprouting Up Worldwide -- "The race for the first carbon-neutral, zero-emissions community is on, from Costa Rica to Libya to an island in San Francisco Bay."
~ Mapping Active Faults In The Gibraltar Arc To Better Predict Earthquake-prone Regions -- "Researchers have characterized the physical and mechanical properties of the Earth's crust in the Gibraltar Arc, an area of intense seismic activity. The African and Eurasian plates get about 4 mm closer every year. The study related the temperature of the Earth's crust to its seismic activity, determining that the probability of earthquakes is significantly lower in areas of higher temperature."
~ Organic Solar Cells: Electricity From A Thin Film -- "Teams of researchers all over the world are working on the development of organic solar cells. Organic solar cells have good prospects for the future: They can be laid onto thin films, which makes them cheap to produce."
~ Lower-income neighborhoods associated with higher obesity rates -- "Obesity prevalence has increased significantly among adults and children in the U.S. over the last two decades. A new study appearing in the journal Nutrition Reviews reveals that characteristics of neighborhoods, including the area`s income level, the built environment, and access to healthy food, contribute to the continuing obesity epidemic." It's just plain cheaper to eat crap than it is healthy foods. Obesity levels won't change much among the low-income until we solve that issue.
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ Peer to Peer Relational and Participatory Spirituality Emerges, Part 2: Participatory Spirituality -- "Integrative Spirituality is posting parts 1 and 2 of the peer to peer (P2P) relational and participatory spirituality articles in part because one of the goals of our organization is to support the process of making known what we believe to be an emerging "new" state or quality of God, Buddha or Consciousness that is focused exclusively the success of humanity as a whole in the form of our collective evolutionary progress. This group-focused state of God, Buddha or Consciousness may very well be the emergence of a unique and new evolutionary stage of spirituality as well as a completely new state of God, Buddha or Consciousness to the general awareness of spiritual individuals."
~ Anxiety and Depression: Breakdowns in the 7 Aspects of Wellness -- "There are 7 Aspects of Wellness that create a whole and complete life. These major life areas are Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Occupational, and Environmental. Striking a balance in each of these life areas is what total wellness is all about, and this means being aware of each aspect and what role it has in the way we feel." This is an old article, but it's useful.
~ “Ego” here now -- "As with archetypes, the conventional ways of looking at “ego” are all valid and useful. At the same time, when I explore it through the five sense fields, I find that “ego” is just a thought arising here now, taken as true."
~ 4 Powerful Social Psychology Techniques To Get What You Want -- "So there you have it – a small collection of social techniques, powerful and subtle if used well. Use them only if you have a conscience; if you don’t, use this knowledge as defense. Although I suspect this last paragraph might be a waste of words – if you don’t have a conscience, you’ll probably ignore this anyway."
~ Gendered Language... -- "So I'm reading a book by Rosalind Hursthouse for my class Confucian Virtue Ethics entitled, "On Virtue Ethics." The book is fairly new (1999), so it doesn't surprise me that Hursthouse doesn't just use masculine language. I was caught off guard, however, finding myself 170 pages into the book and realizing she never uses masculine language at all. Every thought experiment, every example she gives, and every person she refers to in the hypothetical are all "she" and "her." I have a mixed reaction to this."
~ Is Universal Health Care Totalitarian Coercion? -- "Previously, I speculated that Hillary Clinton would win most delegates on Super Tuesday and also pointed out that Clinton's health care plan is more universal than Obama's (as analyzed by Paul Krugman). And there goes Matthew Dallman in the comment section using the phrase "totalitarian State coercion". Here's exactly what he said...."
~ Reminders of Impermanence -- "One of the big themes in all branches of Buddhism, including Zen Punk, is impermanence. Everything eventually comes to an end. The President's Day sale at Target. The New England Patriot's winning streak. The Bush Administration (thank the Buddha)! And of course, life itself. Recent events in my life have brought this message home in an ever deeper way."
~ Integral and Holistic Nursing -- "Barbara M. Dossey PhD, RN. Outside of nursing, there continues to be minimal understanding and recognition related to the depth of nurses’ knowledge, expertise, and critical-thinking capacities and skills for assisting others in achieving and maintaining health and well-being."
~ The Proust Questionaire -- "My dear friend Albert answered the Proust Questionaiere (wonder why it’s called that) and inhis comment dared us all to do the same. So here I go."
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