Speedlinking 4/2/07

Quote of the day:

"Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves."
~ Robert Anton Wilson

Image of the day:


BODY
~ FIGURE COMPETITOR: The Soy Conspiracy -- "If you listen to the popular press and most "health food" makers, then you probably think that soy is a revolutionary food that every woman should be consuming. But now the scientific community is starting to take a closer look at this so-called miracle food. What they're finding is very, very disturbing."
~ Higher Trans Fat Levels In Blood Associated With Elevated Risk Of Heart Disease -- "High consumption of trans fat, found mainly in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and widely used by the food industry, has been linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)."
~ The keys to getting a big chest -- "For most people lifting weights and getting ready for summer there are a few big priorities. One of the things that most guys want is a big chest." Poorly written and nothing new, but useful advice for novices.
~ Muscles and protein -- "Chronic muscle fatigue in athletes is associated with low blood levels of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The sooner you eat protein after you finish your hard workout, the quicker you will recover. The benefits of eating protein soon after you lift weights does not apply just to elite athletes."
~ Fructose is Not Better than Other Sugars -- "Large amounts of fructose appear to cause insulin resistance, impair glucose tolerance, produce high levels of insulin, raise triglycerides, and cause high blood pressure in animals." And you thought fruit was good for you.
~ Women Who Exercise Into Their 70's Can Delay The Onset Of Arthritis Symptoms -- It's never too late to start.
~ Fish Oil Helps Statins Reduce Coronary Events In Japanese Patients -- "Epidemiological and clinical evidence suggests that the increased intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially EPA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-found in fish and fish oil-protects against mortality from coronary artery disease."
~ Science of the female orgasm -- "ABC Radio's Health Report has just had a special on the female orgasm with neurophysiologist Prof Beverly Whipple."


PSYCHE
~ Healthy Habits Might Stave Off Depression -- "Maintaining healthy habits such as exercising regularly and avoiding too much alcohol not only help you look good, but such habits might also stave off depression."
~ People Take Notice When They Feel Worse Than They Thought They Would, But Not When They Feel Better Than Expected -- "Marketing is often filled with hype and superlatives-the greatest, the best and even "heavenly"-but a new University of Georgia study that uncovers a curious aspect of human psychology could change how companies pitch their products."
~ Emotions Play Major Role in Teen Condom Use (HealthDay) -- "Emotions play a large role in teen condom use, and helping teens manage their emotions may be as important as practical information in promoting safe sex, a U.S. study suggests."
~ New Insights Into How The Brain Processes Pain Location -- "Is that pain in your chest a heart attack or indigestion? New research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals that more areas of the brain than previously thought are involved in determining the location of pain."
~ The Glass Brain -- "It is one of the great dreams of brain research to visualize at once all nerve cells and their connections of a complete brain in 3D. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have now come a step closer to turning this dream into reality."
~ Confrontation of good versus evil: Re-examining the Stanford Prison Experiment [The World's Fair] -- "Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University and the guy who conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, writes today [Friday] in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the lessons and conduct of that pyschological test."
~ Brain damage, evolution, and the future of morality -- More on the recent morality study from Slate.
~ Study: Some People Love to Provoke Anger -- "While most people are upset or concerned when someone gives them an angry look, there are others -- with high levels of testosterone -- who actually enjoy angry expressions and seek ways to provoke them, new research suggests."


CULTURE
~ HIV patient names to be tracked in all 50 states by year's end -- "The names of people infected with HIV will be tracked in all 50 states by the end of 2007, marking a victory for federal health officials and a quiet defeat for AIDS advocates who wanted to keep patients' names out of state databases."
~ Today's excessive religious hysteria [Pharyngula] -- "A gay rights group called Soulforce had a sit-in (it warms my heart to hear the traditions of the 1960s have not completely died) in the offices of Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and typical homophobe. One of our local bible scholars, Reuben David, an assistant professor of Communication Arts at North Central University, took it upon himself to criticize these militant gay rights activists...."
~ Republicans, the Party of Despotism -- "Glenn Greenwald reports on the expressly stated affinity of leading Republican presidential candidates for dictatorial powers. Two of the three leading Republican candidates for President either embrace or are open to embracing the idea that the President can imprison Americans without any review, based solely on the unchecked decree of the President."
~ Dobson Disputes U.S. News Story -- "James Dobson takes it back: Maybe Fred Thompson is a Christian after all."
~ What’s the One Thing Big Business and the Left Have in Common? -- "(Believe it or not, it could be a desire for universal health care.)"
~ Nepal's endangered peace process -- "Scarred by continuing violence, the peace process is in serious trouble,"
~ Top GOP operative goes from Bush defender to Bush critic -- "A political operative who served as one of the president's top campaign strategists says he's splitting with the administration, telling the New York Times that he's disappointed in the way Bush has handled everything from Abu Ghraib to Hurricane Katrina...."
~ Alcoholic Energy Drinks -- a Threat to Kids? -- "Spykes Raises Concerns Among Underage Drinking Experts; Company Denies Products Aimed at Teens."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ 51 Ways to Go Green -- "Can one person save the environment? Actually, yes. Here are 51 ways you can help build a greener planet."
~ Jellyfish Have Human-Like Eyes -- "Here's lookin' like you, babe. Jellyfish have many eyes that serve different purposes. One set works like ours."
~ Report Details Global Biological Change -- "From plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth."
~ The power of verification in science -- "Science is a collective, multi-layered process consisting of three steps."
~ On the Superiority of String Theory [Uncertain Principles] -- "Physics is of greater worth than biology, theoretical physics is more worthy than experimental physics, and high-energy particle theory is the most fundamental and important field in the history of human thought. Rather than deriding string theory as an excessively mathematical dead end, as many anti-science America-hating Bush-bashing politically correct feminist shrub-hugging liberal communist dupes do, we should celebrate it as the greatest achievement in the history of human thought." Who you calling a shrub-hugger?
~ Mobile Entertainment Reigns Supreme at CTIA 2007 -- "If there was an overriding theme to the Spring edition of the 2007 CTIA trade show, it was entertainment. What buzz existed was all about phones that show movies, television shows, or play music in one or another format or means of delivery."
~ Possible Solution to Mystery of Great Pyramid's Contruction -- "A French architect claims Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu was built with use of a spiral ramp to hoist huge stone blocks into place."
~ Campaigns Save Energy With Hybrid Cars -- "This year's presidential candidates are trying to get good mileage out of getting good mileage. The candidates, who do a lot of talking about the need for greater energy efficiency, are not just asking who walks the walk but also, who drives the hybrid?"


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Cheat Death And Grow Younger With These 44 Longevity Tips -- Not really integral related, but it covers all the quadrants. I'm a big fan of #11.
~ Kundalini description -- Mystery of Existence posts a piece by Kara-Leah Masina on Kundalini.
~ Sense and Soul: An Integral Spirituality at the Ken Wilber blog.
~ Appropriateness for a Third Time from Aaron at Anxious Living.
~ Demotivated, Steve P. -- Umguy deconstructs Steve Pavlina.
~ Sound of Silence at Hokai's Blogue.
~ The Singularity is Here -- From ~c4Chaos -- "Ray Kurzweil was so wrong. The Singularity is not near. She's here! She's lying beside me. I turn to my right and there she is, looking deep into my eyes, smiling. She puts her arms around me and starts to whisper."
~ Buddhist Geeks 13: Genpo Roshi on Big Mind.

Tags: Genpo Roshi, Big Mind, singularity, silence, Buddhism, Steve Pavlina, social anxiety, Sense and Soul, Ken Wilber, kundalini, longevity tips, hybrids, pyramids, mobile entertainment, string theory, scientific method, global biological change, jellyfish, go green, alcoholic energy drinks, Bush critics, Nepal, universal health care, James Dobson, Republican despots, homophobia, HIV patient tracking, anger, morality, Stanford Prison Experiment, glass brain, pain, emotions and teen condom use, expectations, healthy habits, female orgasm, fish oil, exercise delays arthritis, fructose, muscles and protein, get a big chest, trans fats, soy conspiracy, speedlinking

Newsweek: Is God Real?

Newsweek is taking advantage of Passover and Holy Week to feature three stories on religion in America.

The first article is called Is God Real?

To believe in any form of God requires, it is true, what Henry James called a "willing suspension of disbelief"; it is not especially rational to think, as so many Christians do, that a crucified Nazarene did what no other man had done before or since: rise from the dead and say that believing he had done so would wash you in the atoning blood of the lamb. As Harris likes to point out, people who demand evidence for everything else in their lives are somehow all too happy to accept the word of long-dead Biblical authors in a corner of a long-dead empire.

Yet it is not only Christians who know they are engaging in a leap from fact to faith. God, the great Rabbi Abraham Jacob Heschel said in 1967, "did not make it easy for us to have faith in him, to remain faithful to him. This is our tragedy: the insecurity of faith, the unbearable burden of our commitment. The facts that deny the divine are mighty, indeed; the arguments of agnosticism are eloquent, the events that defy him are spectacular ... Our faith is fragile, never immune to error, distortion or deception. There are no final proofs for the existence of God, Father and Creator of all. There are only witnesses. Supreme among them are the prophets of Israel." No final proofs—there it is, the ultimate caveat. Doubt and faith are not at war; they are parts of the same whole.

This is the substance of the article. It is decidedly anti-religion in some ways, or at least agnostic and skeptical. But it does seek a middle ground, a way through the thicket of faith versus reason. Here are the final paragraphs, which lead into the next article:

Liberty and republican values are the guardrails against extremism, either religious or secular. Religion should not dictate education or science policy, for example, but there is nothing wrong—and there is much right—with its being one voice among many in the shaping of our public lives. One cannot be for one group's right to speak out and exert influence and be against another group's right to do so. The battles must be fought on the merits, and religion should be one force on the field, not the only one.

This moderate solution pleases neither the atheists nor the fervent believers, which may recommend it even more. The more conservative faithful think centrists are squishy, and some atheists argue, as Harris puts it, that "religious moderates are themselves the bearers of a terrible dogma: they imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others ... all we can say, as religious moderates, is that we don't like the personal and social costs that a full embrace of Scripture imposes on us."

Experience suggests, however, that the centrist approach tends to be the most pragmatic and is, to paraphrase Churchill on democracy, the worst possible answer, except for all the others. Atheists would expel God from the debate, but what of the rights of the religious to execute the duties of citizenship? And the most fervid believers would drive atheists from the arena in a fit of fear masquerading as scorn, but what of the rights of the atheists to play a full and unimpeded part in the story of the nation? Neither side should be frightened of debate; both have every reason, if they are as confident as they say they are, to be intellectually open to the other.

Which brings us to the exchange in the following pages. To say the least, Rick Warren did not lose his faith in the middle of the debate; nor did Sam Harris fall to his knees in a moment of sudden conversion. But they talked—civilly, coolly, even with a laugh here and there. The fact that such a conversation can take place between two men who would—and probably will—spend a lifetime opposing what the other stands for is a small ray of light in the gloom of the culture wars. In the end, Warren says that he has "thrown the dice," gambling that Jesus was not a liar, that he was what he said he was in the Gospel accounts. Harris is betting otherwise: "In the fullness of time, one side is really going to win this argument, and the other side is really going to lose." And so four centuries on, a world away from Pascal's France, two men are undertaking his old wager. Who will win? No one can say. At least not yet.

The next article, The God Debate, features Sam Harris and Rick Warren engaging in the same form of dialogue that Harris has had going on with Andrew Sullivan. It seems Harris will take on all comers, which keeps his name in the press and sells his books, and gives the religious leaders a more public forum to convey their views.

The reality is that faith, as the above article pointed out, stands against reason -- in opposition to reason, by necessity, or even by definition. Harris can debate every religious leader on the planet, and win the argument from a rational point of view, but few of the faithful will be converted to his position. Still, I admire his willingness to bang his head against the wall ad infinitum without flinching.

Here is a taste of their discussion:

JON MEACHAM: Rick, since you're the home team, we'll start with Sam. Sam, is there a God in the sense that most Americans think of him?
SAM HARRIS: There's no evidence for such a God, and it's instructive to notice that we're all atheists with respect to Zeus and the thousands of other dead gods whom now nobody worships.

Rick, what is the evidence of the existence of the God of Abraham?
RICK WARREN: I see the fingerprints of God everywhere. I see them in culture. I see them in law. I see them in literature. I see them in nature. I see them in my own life. Trying to understand where God came from is like an ant trying to understand the Internet. Even the most brilliant scientist would agree that we only know a fraction of a percent of the knowledge of the universe. HARRIS: Any scientist must concede that we don't fully understand the universe. But neither the Bible nor the Qur'an represents our best understanding of the universe. That is exquisitely clear.

WARREN: To you.

HARRIS: There is so much about us that is not in the Bible. Every specific science from cosmology to psychology to economics has surpassed and superseded what the Bible tells us is true about our world.

Christopher Churchill for Newsweek Sam Harris, author

Sam, does the Christian you address in your books have to believe that God wrote the Bible and that it is literally true?
HARRIS: Well, there's clearly a spectrum of confidence in the text. I mean, there's the "This is literally true, nothing even gets figuratively interpreted," and then there's the "This is just the best book we have, written by the smartest people who have ever lived, and it's still legitimate to organize our lives around it to the exclusion of other books." Anywhere on that spectrum I have a problem, because in my mind the Bible and the Qur'an are just books, written by human beings. There are sections of the Bible that I think are absolutely brilliant and poetically unrivaled, and there are sections of the Bible which are the sheerest barbarism, yet profess to prescribe a divinely mandated morality—where do I start? Books like Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Exodus and First and Second Kings and Second Samuel—half of the kings and prophets of Israel would be taken to The Hague and prosecuted for crimes against humanity if these events took place in our own time.

[To Warren] Is the Bible inerrant?
WARREN: I believe it's inerrant in what it claims to be. The Bible does not claim to be a scientific book in many areas.

Do you believe Creation happened in the way Genesis describes it?
WARREN: If you're asking me do I believe in evolution, the answer is no, I don't. I believe that God, at a moment, created man. I do believe Genesis is literal, but I do also know metaphorical terms are used. Did God come down and blow in man's nose? If you believe in God, you don't have a problem accepting miracles. So if God wants to do it that way, it's fine with me.

HARRIS: I'm doing my Ph.D. in neuroscience; I'm very close to the literature on evolutionary biology. And the basic point is that evolution by natural selection is random genetic mutation over millions of years in the context of environmental pressure that selects for fitness.

WARREN: Who's doing the selecting?

HARRIS: The environment. You don't have to invoke an intelligent designer to explain the complexity we see.

WARREN: Sam makes all kinds of assertions based on his presuppositions. I'm willing to admit my presuppositions: there are clues to God. I talk to God every day. He talks to me.

HARRIS: What does that actually mean?

WARREN: One of the great evidences of God is answered prayer. I have a friend, a Canadian friend, who has an immigration issue. He's an intern at this church, and so I said, "God, I need you to help me with this," as I went out for my evening walk. As I was walking I met a woman. She said, "I'm an immigration attorney; I'd be happy to take this case." Now, if that happened once in my life I'd say, "That is a coincidence." If it happened tens of thousands of times, that is not a coincidence.

Christopher Churchill for Newsweek Rick Warren, pastor

There must have been times in your ministry when you've prayed for someone to be delivered from disease who is not—say, a little girl with cancer.
WARREN: Oh, absolutely.

So, parse that. God gave you an immigration attorney, but God killed a little girl.
WARREN: Well, I do believe in the goodness of God, and I do believe that he knows better than I do. God sometimes says yes, God sometimes says no and God sometimes says wait. I've had to learn the difference between no and not yet. The issue here really does come down to surrender. A lot of atheists hide behind rationalism; when you start probing, you find their reactions are quite emotional. In fact, I've never met an atheist who wasn't angry.

HARRIS: Let me be the first.

WARREN: I think your books are quite angry.

The debate contains Harris' usual arguments, so there is nothing new there. But I think it's instructive to read Warren's responses. Through his views, we can get an insight into the role of faith in the human psyche. As much as I side with Harris' arguments (in part, but certainly not in whole, as most readers of this blog know), I do agree with Warren that Harris sometimes comes across as an angry man -- especially in his books.

In case you think that the atheists might possibly be swaying the public discourse in their favor, the final article, God’s Numbers, looks at recent Newsweek poll results that confirm little has changed in the realm of belief in this country.

Here is the breakdown:

A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. Nine in 10 (91 percent) of American adults say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Christians far outnumber members of any other faith in the country, with 82 percent of the poll’s respondents identifying themselves as such. Another 5 percent say they follow a non-Christian faith, such as Judaism or Islam. Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

Although one in ten (10 percent) of Americans identify themselves as having "no religion," only six percent said they don’t believe in a God at all. Just 3 percent of the public self-identifies as atheist, suggesting that the term may carry some stigma. Still, the poll suggests that the public’s tolerance of this small minority has increased in recent years. Nearly half (47 percent) of the respondents felt the country is more accepting of atheists today that it used to be and slightly more (49 percent) reported personally knowing an atheist. Those numbers are higher among respondents under 30 years old, 62 percent of whom report knowing an atheist (compared to just 43 percent of those 50 and older). Sixty-one percent of the under-30 cohort view society as more accepting of atheists (compared to 40 percent of the Americans 50 and older).

[Emphasis added -- 34% of college grads believe in creationism?!?]

With 8 in 10 of Americans identifying as Christian, Harris and the other prominent atheists have their work cut out for them.

Harris thinks that, eventually, one side or the other is going to win the argument of reason or faith. He's betting on reason. I'm skeptical. Faith of the kind Harris opposes is part of the evolutionary matrix, something a student neurobiology should be able to grasp. No matter how far we evolve along the spiral of development, there will always be a series of troubling stages people must pass through -- the tribal, the egoic, and the mythic.

We cannot skip developmental stages. As long as there are people, there will be people who arrest at these stages and never grow beyond them. Unless Harris is willing to euthanize those people who never embrace a rational understanding of the world, at least on the spiritual developmental line, he (or his philosophical offspring) will lose the wager.

Tags: religion, culture, belief, faith, Newsweek, Sam Harris, Rick Warren, atheism, Christianity, God

New Poem: Unconventional Love Sonnet #7

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Unconventional Love Sonnet #7

The desert speaks in riddles. Muted grays
and greens hide some secret further obscured
by searing sun. Any syntax of meaning crumbles
until all that remains is the naked moment,

unabashed in its revelation of nothing and
everything. The mind groans under the ambiguity
of now, demanding context more concrete
than the coyote's howl, the willowy breeze, or

the hummingbird's erratic flight. This landscape,
this impenetrable mystery, is not our home.
We are trespassers amid red rock, strangers

who have solved a single variable. In the quiet
solace of touch, the riddles become a prophecy
transforming confusion into a fertile presence.

Tags: new poem, Unconventional Love Sonnet #7, love, relationships, the desert

Daily Dharma: Citta

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Citta

In Pali, heart and mind are one word (citta), but in English we have to differentiate between the two to make the meaning clear. When we attend to the mind, we are concerned with the thinking process and the intellectual understanding that derives from knowledge, and with our ability to retain knowledge and make use of it. When we speak of the "heart" we think of feelings and emotions, our ability to respond with our fundamental being. Although we may believe that we are leading our lives according to our thinking process, that is not the case. If we examine this more closely, we will find that we are leading our lives according to our feelings and that our thinking is dependent upon our feelings. The emotional aspect of ourselves is of such great importance that its purification is the basis for a harmonious and peaceful life, and also for good meditation.

~ Ayya Khema, When the Iron Eagle Flies

Tags: Daily Dharma, Tricycle, Ayya Khema, When the Iron Eagle Flies, Citta, Buddhism

Daily Om: Finding Unqualified Happiness

[If Only]

This was yesterday's Daily Om:

Finding Unqualified Happiness
If Only

Since most of our experiences are rooted in cause and effect, we naturally want to justify our contentment. We envision grand circumstances, stating that if only we could achieve this goal or obtain that possession, we would finally be in a position to attain happiness. As a result, satisfaction is always just out of reach and the very notion of grabbing hold of it seems like nothing more than a pipe dream. But the truth is that sincere contentment and fulfillment are never wholly the result of external events or situations. Though life's joyful moments can ignite the spark of contentment within us, that spark is fueled by serenity long established in our souls. When we forget this, it is easy to become stuck in "if only" patterns of thought. If we concentrate on the natural serenity that exists within us, however, we can move forward unimpeded by disappointment.

The circumstances you live through each day have the potential to bring both joy and despair into your life. Relying on the reactions they awaken within you to create an emotional foundation means living on a roller coaster of feeling whose course is determined by chance. Though you may yearn for the object of your desire-be it a new job, financial health, a spouse, or some other symbol of success-you have within you the power to be happy without it. Letting go of your "if only" thinking patterns can be as easy as recognizing that inward emptiness cannot be dispelled with outer world solutions. Try creating a list of your "if only"s. Then literally and figuratively let go of the items on the list by tearing it up or burning it. This simple action can help set in motion the intention to set you free, enabling you to make a fresh and balanced start in the present, unencumbered by regrets and unfulfilled desires.

There will likely be periods in your life in which you find yourself tempted to seek a magic formula for fulfillment that is centered upon a single goal or achievement. But the ingredients that come together to form the seeds of happiness that can sustain your spirit throughout the triumphs and trials of existence come from within rather than from without. When your search for satisfaction is focused on your soul, you will never fail to find the joy you seek.

I used to engage in a lot of if-only thinking. If only I had more money. If only I had a different job. If only I had a different partner. If only I had a different car. If only Bush would resign. If only . . . If only . . . If only . . . . I was trying to fill an unconscious need for inner peace by seeking outer things.

All of those things are worth striving for, but they are not worth putting my current life on hold to attain. When I decided to live in the present and do those things that make me a happier and better person (inner work, meditation, and so on), and let the future take care of itself, things started to fall into place.

For the first time in my life, I have the jobs I have always wanted (writer, trainer), I have a new partner I love and who loves me, and I just bought a better car than any I have owned before.

But I never spent a lot of time waiting for those things (well, OK, I struggled with the job thing for a couple of years before the pieces fell into place), or longing for those things. When I stopped grasping for what I didn't have, I created the space to do what was necessary to achieve those things.

It's one thing to create intention and then do what is needed, all from a place of feeling whole in who I am in the moment; but it's another thing to live with the "If only" mentality. And just to be clear, I don't see any of this as "the power of attraction" or whatever that "The Secret" nonsense claims.

I'm not saying I have all of this down and that I never grasp at a better future. But I am learning more and more each day to be present to who I am now and what I am about -- the more I do that, the easier it is to turn intention into reality.

Tags: Daily Om, Finding Unqualified Happiness, Buddhism, If only, intention, being present

New Poem: Unconventional Love Sonnet #6

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Unconventional Love Sonnet #6

In perfect Eden, self awareness -- the painful
recognition of I and Thou -- forever destroyed
the innocent bliss, set man and woman
on a path from the oceanic to something other.

So many thorns, so many more serpents
tempting us with greater knowledge, offering
us eternity in the DNA of flesh, each step
taking us farther from that distant home.

How do we navigate the sorrows we have known?
What talismans do we finger to protect us
from pain, from separation, from ourselves?

If I promise her forever, will she understand
that I will one day die? If our bodies dissolve
the illusion of time, can we stay there?

Tags: new poem, Unconventional Love Sonnet #6, love, relationships

Gratitude 3/30/07 -- Five Years in Tucson

[image source]

As of yesterday, I have been in Tucson for five long, hot, sweaty years. I often haven't been happy to be here during that time -- I do not like heat or the lack of rain. But something has shifted during that time as well, making me grateful that I made the move.

I moved down here for a relationship that was most likely doomed from the start. Despite that, I learned a lot from that time and I no longer regret leaving Seattle, as much as I often miss the Emerald City.

When I moved down here, I thought about coming to Tucson as my metaphorical 40 Days in the desert -- an opportunity to discover who I really am aside from all the expectations I had placed on myself in trying to conform, at least a little, to what society expects of a "man."

But I am not a conformist, and I have always struggle to accept that truth and reject all the outer ideals of who I should be. I have a subpersonality who wants nothing more than to be accepted and liked by others -- and, consequently, he is willing to sell the rest of who I am down the river to get what he wants. Learning to integrate him into my sense of self and still be true to who I really am has been a part of the learning experience for me.

More importantly, moving down here -- to an awful and underpaid job market -- forced me to get serious about doing work I love. I became a personal trainer, and I began to write children's books for educational publishers. The training job is great and I have never been happier in my work. I just finished (last night) a book for McGraw-Hill on a topic that I am passionate about. Things are good.

The best part, however, is that while the relationship that brought me down here failed -- predictably, it would seem in retrospect -- I have since met someone else with whom I am much more compatible. Things are still new between us and we are moving slowly, but it feels right in ways no other relationship ever has.

So, five years into my 40 Days in the desert, I am grateful for the life I have created here. I have wonderful clients, an opportunity to write, and a relationship that makes me happier than I can ever remember feeling. I never would have guessed that this would be my life when I left Seattle on a rainy March night and began the long drive to Tucson.

Amazing.

Tags: gratitude, Tucson, relationships, meaningful work, life

Mandelbrot Fractals

The Wikipedia page on Mandelbrot Fractals has some cool pictures. Below are five images from the fourteen image sequence presented there.

I'm not quite sure why I have always been fascinated by fractals. In some ways, to a mathematically challenged person such as myself, it feels that the enormity of the images allows for an infinite expansion of possibilities into the tiniest details -- a metaphor for the depth and complexity of life.

Or it could be that they remind me of some of my experiences with entheogens -- which also seemed to turn the ordinary into an endlessly complex and evolving tapestry of possibilities.

Wikipedia also has a page on fractal art for those who are interested.

Tags: Mandelbrot Set, Fractals, art, science, math, fractal art, entheogens

PBS: Novel Reflections on the American Dream

PBS is launching a new series on the American Novel, with the requisite website to go with it.

How has the American Novel evolved and in what ways does it reflect an experience that is uniquely American? This site offers a comprehensive exploration of 200 years of the American novel, including in-depth information on more than 50 American novels and authors, along with the literary movements they inspired.

NOVEL REFLECTIONS ON THE AMERICAN DREAM explores the characters, plots, and themes of seven novels that deal with wealth, poverty, and the nature of success and failure in America. In an exploration that moves from the turn of the 20th century into progressively more contemporary surroundings, passages from each book are dramatized through haunting still photography that is inventively animated and coupled with original and archival footage.

The site includes some nice features, including a literary timeline, elements of the novel, and lists of best novels. This should be an excellent series for those of us who love literature.

Check times for your area.

Tags: PBS, NOVEL REFLECTIONS ON THE AMERICAN DREAM, American novel, fiction, culture

Newton's First Law of Motion Explained

[Click to enlarge]

Tags: Calvin and Hobbes, humor, physics, cartoons

What Color Is Your Psyche?

Your Psyche is Green

You radiate love, empathy, and acceptance. You are able to relax almost everyone you meet. You are naturally comforting. Balanced and flexible, you only seem perfect! When you are too green: you are jealous, manipulative, and deceptive When you don't have enough green: you feel sluggish and out of sorts

What Color Is Your Psyche?

Tags: What Color Is Your Psyche?, blogthings, memes, personality quizzes

Speedlinking 3/30/07

Quote of the day:

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
~ George Bernard Shaw

Image of the day:


BODY
~ 7 Simple Analogies -- "Eric Cressey is like a Swiss cheese in a sea of Gorgonzola... oh, forget it. We were trying to come up with an analogy that was at least half as good as the training analogies Eric uses in this article, but we failed. Luckily, Eric was spot on."
~ Organic Is Healthier: Kiwis Prove That Green Is Good -- "In one of the most comprehensive and definitive studies of its kind to date, a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis have proven that organically grown kiwifruit contain more health-promoting factors than those grown under conventional conditions."
~ Cancer-Fighting Foods, Supplements Explored In Day-Long Symposium -- "Researchers worldwide are discovering a cornucopia of compounds in foods and dietary supplements that show promise for preventing cancer. More than a dozen research papers on this topic was presented during a one-day symposium, "Natural Products, Diets and Cancer Prevention," at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society."
~ Low-Carb Love -- "If you're hubby's getting tubby or you want your bf to buff up, check out our tips on getting your man to work out more."
~ Green Tea May Prevent HIV Infection -- "A US and UK joint study suggests that drinking green tea may help to prevent HIV infection."
~ FDA Advisers OK Prostate Cancer Vaccine -- "Federal health advisers have endorsed an experimental vaccine to treat advanced prostate cancer as safe and effective...."
~ Activity protects against repetitive strain injury -- "Being physically active outside of work may protect against work-related repetitive strain injury, researchers from Canada report." Also good advice for the weekend athlete.
~ Low-cal ketogenic diet slows brain cancer in mice -- "A calorically restricted ketogenic diet decreases the growth of malignant brain tumors in laboratory mice, according to an online report in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism." Ketogenic means no carbs (less 25 grams a day), a fast way to lose weight if you have the will-power. The diet probably staved the tumor.


PSYCHE
~ Cherishing Differences -- "How similar do we have to be to have a successful relationship? What should I do if my partner is completely different than am I?"
~ Do Women Enjoy Chocolate More Than Sex? -- This AlterNet article rips Joan Sewell, who would rather eat chocolate than have sex (I'd Rather Eat Chocolate: Learning to Love My Low Libido) a much needed new one.
~ Study May Help Develop ADD Treatments -- "New Brain Study May Help Scientists Develop Better Treatments for Attention Deficit Disorder."
~ Brain Pays Attention in Two Ways -- "Different brain parts are used while concentrating and when noting distractions."
~ Erotic art goes for the groin -- "More Americans seem to appreciate a painting that may look like fresh cherries but when you stare long enough, becomes an image of kinky sex." Now that's the kind of study we need more of.
~ Blogging on the Brain: 3/29 [Developing Intelligence] -- A collection of links.
~ New Book Presents Neurobiology From An Evolutionary Perspective -- "A new book, An Introduction to Nervous Systems, recently released by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, presents the fundamental principles of neurobiology from an evolutionary perspective."
~ Touchy feely new age bullshit -- "This type of new age crap bothers me a whole lot. There's always a whole lot of words and ideas but no content or real evidence. It bothers me even more when evidence is used that is so very distal to the actual point. Physics and vibrations?! you've got to be kidding me!"
~ The Mating IQ Quiz -- "How well do you read the opposite sex?"
~ The Biology of Attraction -- "Courtship and mating is choreographed by nature."
~ The Truth About Compatibility -- "When it comes to love and compatibility, experts tell it like it is."


CULTURE
~ Afraid of Aging: 20-Somethings Flock to Plastic Surgeons -- "More and More Young Women Are Using Surgery to Preserve Their Faces."
~ House hearing addresses missing oil and gas royalties -- "The steamiest soap opera in D.C. continues this week with a House hearing on $1 billion in uncollected oil and gas royalties. A cast of star-crossed witnesses testified to the Natural Resources Committee about the forbidden love between the Minerals Management Service and Big Oil."
~ Separate White House Email Accounts Draw New Criticism -- "News that administration officials are buying separate private email accounts to avoid using the internal system, coupled with reports that aides have often used GOP email accounts, is drawing heat from public interest groups. One, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, claims the practice could be illegal."
~ Gonzales' Fall Guy Fires Back -- "Even as he denied claims of partisan meddling in the U.S. Attorney firings, Kyle Sampson cast new suspicion on the roles of his former boss, the attorney general, and Karl Rove."
~ Hirsh: Iran and America, At the Brink -- "America and Iran are barreling toward a collision. It doesn't have to be this way."
~ Oprah's new Book Club pick, reviewed -- "Oprah announced her Book Club's new selection yesterday: Cormac McCarthy's The Road. A brutally violent End Times narrative doesn't seem like typical Oprah fare: The book follows a father and son's journey across a scorched earth in winter, battling cannibal slavers and looting abandoned buildings to survive. But in a Slate essay published last year, and reproduced below, Jennifer Egan glimpsed the novel's tender side." Wow! Oprah chose a "hard" book for the club -- and rumor is that the elusive McCarthy will make an appearance.
~ Some Athletes Don't Want to Be Role Models -- "Student-athletes should not be asked to be role models, a pair of University of Michigan alumni told a panel last night. "Current student-athletes have enough pressures around them," a former football player said. Others accepted the extra role-model pressure as a duty."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins -- Video -- "John Perkins, as a former 'economic hit man', explains the exploitation of third world countries using government endorsed lucrative loans that go straight to corporate interests and the raping of precious resources instead of development purposes."
~ Microsoft Unveils New Mobile Web Browser -- "Microsoft Corp. has unveiled an early version of a new Web browser for mobile devices that it said will make browsing full-sized Web pages faster and easier on small smart-phone screens."
~ MIT's ocean model precisely mimics microbes' life cycles -- "Scientists at MIT have created an ocean model so realistic that the virtual forests of diverse microscopic plants they "sowed" have grown in population patterns that precisely mimic their real-world counterparts."
~ Chandra Sheds Light on Galaxy Collision -- "Astronomers think that there are enormous black holes at the centers of most, if not all, galaxies. These black holes, which can be millions or even billions of times more massive than the Sun, can greatly affect the galaxy and the environments around them."
~ Endangered Wolves Cloned--Can Cloning Save Others From Extinction? -- "Scientists have created two clones of an endangered gray wolf, raising the question of whether cloning could be the conservation tool of the future."
~ Video: Grand Canyon Skywalk's 4,000-Foot View -- "See what it's like to stand on a glass walkway 400 stories above the canyon floor—video taken on opening day, Wednesday, March 28."
~ Environmental Group Calls on EU To Halve Catches of Threatened Bluefin Tuna -- "The WWF environment group called on the EU Thursday to cut catches of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean by half in an attempt to secure the commercial survival of the species."
~ Boeing working on Fuel Cell Airplane -- "Boeing researchers and industry partners throughout Europe are planning to conduct experimental flight tests this year of a manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries...."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Alternative Views on the Radical Transformation of an Integral Salon -- "Joe Perez, one of my integral blogging heroes, and someone I consider to be a good friend even though I don't get to see him enough, has offered some feedback on my post about The Radical Transformation of Integral Salons Into First Tier (read it, and the other comments, here)."
~ Passover - Beyond the Suffering -- From Dharmashanti's Blog -- "Passover is a special time for me. It is an opportunity to connect with my Jewish heritage. At the same time, it bothers me that so much of the symbolism around the holiday centers around suffering."
~ One Mind Village -- "Stuart Davis Interview on OneMindVillage.com, as well as Ken Wilber and Paul Lonely! Check it out, fresh out of the hopper."
~ BLOG: Integral Politics on YouTube -- "An extraordinary 18-minute video of Ken describing an Integral approach to politics has been uploaded to the Integral Naked YouTube channel. Click here to check it out!"
~ Continuing the Relationship Conversation with Bill -- "My first round of theorizing (and again, I can easily be wrong) is that Bill is wrong here. . . ." Ebuddha responds to my post from yesterday on relationships. Nice points he makes. I'll have a response later today or Saturday.
~ At The Woodshed: The attention economy: where artists shall reign -- From Matthew Dallman -- check it out.
~ At Integrative Spirituality: What is Ecospirituality and Why is it Important to ALL Spiritual Individuals?
~ Alan Kazlev at Open Integral on AQAL Journal.

Tags: AQAL Journal, ecospirituality, attention economy, integral relationships, Stuart Davis, Passover, Buddhism, radical transformation, fuel cell airplane, bluefin tuna, grand canyon skywalk, wolves cloned, galaxy collision, ocean model, mobile web browser, John Perkins, athletes as role models, Oprah book club, Iran, Alberto Gonzales, white house, oil and gas royalties, plastic surgery, relationships, attraction, mating IQ, new age bullshit, evolutionary neurobiology, erotic art, attention, ADD treatments, female libido, brain cancer, repetitive strain injury, prostate cancer vaccine, green tea and HIV, exercise, cancer-fighting foods, organic food, weight training, speedlinking

An Evolutionary View of Human Violence -- Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker rocks. He is far and away my favorite contemporary scientist writing for the public. In an article at Edge, based on his recent TED Talk (and originally published in The New Republic), Pinker dispels the myth of the noble savage.

The basic premise of the noble savage theory is that humans are basically good and that it is civilization, technology, and society that have corrupted us and made us violent. But anyone who has read much of human history, especially anthropology, will know that this is horribly false. We have not been inherently good. Primal societies are far from peaceful and loving. In fact, most primal societies are violent and barbaric by our modern standards.

In the article at Edge, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, Pinker argues the points I have just raised, only much more authoritatively and elegantly.

Ken Wilber has made exactly the same arguments at various times in his work. The integral developmental model of human evolution is partly founded on the notion that humans have progressively become less violent, less egoic, and more compassionate as we have evolved. Certainly, as even Pinker points out, we have a long way to go.

Here is a little of Pinker's article to whet your appetite -- and one of the interesting elements of this argument, mentioned in this passage, in the indictment of post-modern relativist historians:

In sixteenth-century Paris, a popular form of entertainment was cat-burning, in which a cat was hoisted in a sling on a stage and slowly lowered into a fire. According to historian Norman Davies, "[T]he spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." Today, such sadism would be unthinkable in most of the world. This change in sensibilities is just one example of perhaps the most important and most underappreciated trend in the human saga: Violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth.

In the decade of Darfur and Iraq, and shortly after the century of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, the claim that violence has been diminishing may seem somewhere between hallucinatory and obscene. Yet recent studies that seek to quantify the historical ebb and flow of violence point to exactly that conclusion.

Some of the evidence has been under our nose all along. Conventional history has long shown that, in many ways, we have been getting kinder and gentler. Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment, the death penalty for misdemeanors and differences of opinion, assassination as the mechanism of political succession, rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration, homicide as the major form of conflict resolution—all were unexceptionable features of life for most of human history. But, today, they are rare to nonexistent in the West, far less common elsewhere than they used to be, concealed when they do occur, and widely condemned when they are brought to light.

At one time, these facts were widely appreciated. They were the source of notions like progress, civilization, and man's rise from savagery and barbarism. Recently, however, those ideas have come to sound corny, even dangerous. They seem to demonize people in other times and places, license colonial conquest and other foreign adventures, and conceal the crimes of our own societies. The doctrine of the noble savage—the idea that humans are peaceable by nature and corrupted by modern institutions—pops up frequently in the writing of public intellectuals like José Ortega y Gasset ("War is not an instinct but an invention"), Stephen Jay Gould ("Homo sapiens is not an evil or destructive species"), and Ashley Montagu ("Biological studies lend support to the ethic of universal brotherhood"). But, now that social scientists have started to count bodies in different historical periods, they have discovered that the romantic theory gets it backward: Far from causing us to become more violent, something in modernity and its cultural institutions has made us nobler.

Read the rest of the article.

Tags: Steven Pinker, A History of Violence, evolution, barbarism, integral developmental model, TED Talks, The Edge