"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion."
~ C.P. Snow
Image of the day (Benjamin Mercer):
BODY
~ 17 Fitness Truths To Get You In Great Shape -- "The ups-and-downs of my fitness efforts have highlighted some important points for me. Key among those points: don’t quit. If you mess up, and stop for awhile, that doesn’t mean you should quit altogether. Just keep going. You’ll get there eventually."
~ Childhood Obesity And Sleep Duration Linked -- "Less sleep can increase a child's risk of being overweight or obese, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their analysis of epidemiological studies found that with each additional hour of sleep, the risk of a child being overweight or obese dropped by 9 percent. The results are published in the February 2008 edition Obesity, the journal of The Obesity Society." This tends to be true for adults as well.
~ Nobody likes doing squats -- "Here is the thing, squats are really hard. They are harder than most of the things people in the gym like to do. Especially squatting heavy."
~ Body fat determines need for diet -- "Measuring body fat, rather than body mass index, appears to more accurately identify people who need lifestyle interventions to lose weight, study findings suggest." It's about freaking time the media reports this -- my BMI is about 27, making me "overweight," but my bodyfat is under 10%, making me pretty fit.
~ Acupuncture might help with fertility -- "Acupuncture appears to be a useful fertility aid, according to a new report in the British Medical Journal that found pairing acupuncture with in-vitro fertilization can raise a couple's odds of getting pregnant by 65 percent."
~ 14 Simple Ways to Convert Your Sedentary Lifestyle -- "We all know we need to exercise more – our lifestyles are way too sedentary compared to that of the previous generations. It's not all our fault. The days of the 9 to 5 job are long over and despite huge advances in technology, our lives seem to be a lot busier compared than that of previous generations."
~ High Blood Pressure Pill Cuts Risk Of Parkinson's Disease -- "People taking a widely used group of drugs known as calcium channel blockers to treat high blood pressure also appear to be cutting their risk of Parkinson's disease, according to a new study. The study found people who were currently long-term users of calcium channel blockers to treat high blood pressure lowered their risk of Parkinson's disease by 23 percent compared to people who didn't take the drugs. There was no such effect among people taking ACE inhibitors, AT II antagonists and beta blockers."
~ Irregular Exercise Pattern May Add Pounds -- "The consequences of quitting exercise may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study that determined that the weight gained during an exercise hiatus can be tough to shed when exercise is resumed at a later date."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Sad, self-absorbed shoppers spend more -- "If you’re sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people’s spending judgment goes out the window when they’re down, especially if they’re a bit self-absorbed."
~ The Importance of Active Leisure -- "My husband and I took my godmother’s new dog, a 10 month old schipperke, for a long walk across Duke East Campus, as far as the statue of Sower. What pleasure this wiggling, active, curious, explorative little creature is giving my godmother! It made me wonder what positive psychology can tell us about pets in our lives. Following this curiosity led me to an article about the importance of active non-work activities in handling work-related stress."
~ Secrets of Wellbeing Series — Part 2: Using Your Signature Strengths -- "Do you find life exhausting and frustrating? Or is it easy and exhilarating? The difference between the two experiences may hinge on something simple: whether or not your life is aligned to your signature strengths. Signature strengths are the things we like doing and are good at. For example, I love learning; it excites me!"
~ The Pursuit of (What Else?) Happiness -- "In case you haven’t seen it yet, my buddy Alex Shalman, from AlexShalman.com (Practical Personal Development), recently launched his “Happiness Project.” After hearing Tim Ferriss recommend Dan Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling On Happiness” (which I read, and whose TED video I’ve set up for you at the bottom of this post), I’m very, very curious about people’s findings about one of the most sought after prizes in life: good, old-fashioned happiness."
~ Suffocating in a Relationship? -- "How to get the space you need."
~ Lone Stars: Being Single -- "Welcome to the diversified world of today's singles."
~ Stop Talking and Start Communicating -- "Have you ever noticed how some people speak fluent English but at the same time, they don't really speak your language? They don't talk with you or to you, as much as they talk at you, over you and around you - in your general direction."
~ Multidisciplinary Treatment for Depression: Gold Standard? -- "Yet another study has been released about the benefits of a multi-disciplinary approach to depression. This study showed that such an approach is actually more cost-effective than other, hodge-podge methods of treatment. Previous studies on a multidisciplinary approach to depression has shown it to be more effective in treating depression as well."
~ Unparenting the Children, Parenting Yourself -- "Why do some parents become over-involved with their children's lives? And what can they do about it? Maybe the first step toward letting go of a vice-like emotional grip on children is to work out what your own needs are."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The Significance Of Peers During Adolescence -- "Girls in high school take as many math courses as boys, influenced by close friends and peers who are doing well in school. More than boys, girls look to their close friends when they make important decisions, such as whether to take math and what math classes to take, confirming how significant peers are during adolescence."
~ Poems of the Masters -- " For the past eight centuries Poems of the Masters has been China's most studied and memorized collection of verse. This edition contains, for the first time in English, the complete text prepared by renowned translator Red Pine."
~ Gary Hart: Obama Won't Fade -- "Obama’s pitch, Hart believes, is his ability to attract independents and Republicans to the ticket in the fall."
~ Net Loss: Why liberal bloggers don't love Obama -- "Obama is, in some respects, the ideal candidate of the Yearly Kos contingent--an insurgent who opposed the Iraq war, generated grassroots enthusiasm, and built a massive online fund-raising apparatus. But the bloggers who champion these things have not all rallied around Obama. In fact, many are strikingly ambivalent about his candidacy."
~ JUSTICE, GENDER, AND THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM -- "Song suggests that the cultural rights of minorities have to be accommodated precisely because of three reasons: past injustice, present discrimination and state establishment of culture. However, for Song, the case for accommodation depends on particular circumstances. More significantly, these accommodations need to be limited so that they could not come at the expense of rights of individual members within these minorities. Thus, developing and critically engaging with multicultural theorists such as Will Kymlicka, Monica Deveaux, Bhikhu Parekh and numerous others, Song’s formulation is the need for rights-respecting accommodationism." Yeah, sure, good luck with that.
~ In name only -- "The US government is keen to invoke Keynesian economics, but their efforts lack the philosopher's ideal of shared prosperity."
~ How McCain Can Convince the Right -- "John McCain is not the first Republican nominee to give conservatives fits. In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower promised Robert Taft's supporters that he was just as conservative as Mr. Republican, as Taft was known. By the time Ike finished his two terms, conservatives were so disappointed they vowed never again to support a moderate based on vague pledges of conservative fealty."
~ Safe sex, dangerous love -- "I am extremely sympathetic with Higgins’s overall thesis that we would all do far better to spend more time with Roman poetry and less with popular psychology; indeed the recent renaissance of Latin as an exciting – not dry and dusty – language to learn, exemplified by the runaway success of Harry Mount’s amusing Amo, Amas, Amat, is one of the most encouraging cultural trends to emerge for ages."
~ The Case for McCain -- "Some things in life are quite simple. Here's one of them: Sen. John McCain is going to be our next president. How do I know? For starters, McCain will have a unified Republican party -- conservatives and all -- working hard for him. He's also going to win over the Reagan Democrats, the Bush Democrats, and the Perot independents. These folks demand a strong military, want government off their backs, and are sick and tired of growing federal deficits and out-of-control spending. McCain's their man."
~ Clinton beats Obama but not McCain -- "A new poll from Time (PDF) shows that Democrats still like Hillary Clinton better than John McCain. But once the vote is opened up to both Democrats and Republicans, Barack Obama is the candidate who beats John McCain."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Roche, Clinton Foundation Partner To Deliver HIV Tests To Infants In Africa -- "Pharmaceutical company Roche and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative have partnered in an effort to increase access to HIV testing among infants in 24 sub-Saharan African countries, Rwanda's New Times reports. According to the agreement, Roche will deliver diagnostic tests at reduced costs to children younger than 18 months in the region who have been exposed to HIV."
~ Urban Ecological Study Measures The Impact Of The Coming Megacity -- "If you are reading this, chances are that you live in a city - one, perhaps, on its way to becoming a megacity with a population that exceeds 10 million or more. If not, you and most of the world's population soon will be, according to global population demographics projections."
~ When It Comes to Wind Power, Who Teaches the Teachers? -- "When science teacher Michael Arquin started educating students about wind power, he had no idea his curriculum would come to influence thousands of teachers and students nationwide."
~ Birds, Bats And Insects Hold Secrets For Aerospace Engineers -- "Natural flyers like birds, bats and insects outperform man-made aircraft in aerobatics and efficiency. Engineers are studying these animals as a step toward designing flapping-wing planes with wingspans smaller than a deck of playing cards."
~ Freshwater Fish Invasions The Result Of Human Activity -- "Mapping worldwide freshwater fish invasions allowed the identification of major invasion hot spots and demonstrated that economic activity is the main determinant of freshwater fish invasions at the global scale."
~ Food for Thought: How Plastic We've Become -- "Uncle Sam has confirmed it: Our bodies carry residues of kitchen plastics."
~ What Is Relativity? -- "Albert Einstein was famous for many things, but his greatest brainchild is the theory of relativity. It forever changed our understanding of space and time."
~ Origin of Birds Debated -- "Scientists can't agree on when modern birds first appeared on Earth."
~ Botanists see winter fading away in U.K. -- "Climate change is leading some British botanists to conclude that winter is disappearing as a distinct season in the United Kingdom."
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."
~ Buddhism is Watering the Western Cultures like Rain Waters a Field of Flowers -- "In my eyes, Western Buddhism is no different than when Chinese Buddhism, or Korean, or Tibetan Buddhism was the newest tradition in the vast Buddhist community. Buddhism always blends and adapts to different cultures when introduced to that new society but I don't believe that makes it any less useful."
~ Resources for family-based classical learning -- "I’ve just come upon a great source for learning resources — OpenTexture.com. They sell two lines of education products, and along with Memoria Press, provide a very good starting point for family-based learning (i.e. homeschooling) in terms of comprehensive curriculums."
~ Hidden Newton -- "Or, Newton the Alchemist. "Hidden" meaning "not known to general public", because there's a hidden Einstein, a hidden Schroedinger, a hidden Heisenberg, a hidden Planck... These hidden aspects of our great scientific geniuses are actually reflections of taboos long held by the modern scientific community at large since its inception and rise to power, taboos that were introduced to consolidate the "scientific outlook" and make it the rational way of seeing the universe and man's place in it."
~ Feeling of Pain, Feeling of Self -- "I've had some interesting responses to this whole matter of practicing self-enquiry. I got a very wonderful email from someone who practices self-enquiry, and describes the process as intensely frustrating, and even painful."
~ Integral Action in the World -- "More than 700 Palestinians gathered at the Shepard Hotel in Bethlehem to participate in a day long initiative to determine their own future. They are all members of Fatah and came from all age groups, professions, and towns in the West Bank to hear presentations on Spiral Dynamics by Palestinians and then met in groups of 8 to 10 to fill flip charts with their own ideas as to what we called Palestine-21st Century. There was no conversation about Israel, or the occupation, or other restrictions; they realized it was time for then to determine their own destiny." Don Beck walks the talk.
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