Friday, June 22, 2007

Speedlinking 6/22/07

Quote of the day:

"Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible."
~ Margaret Mead

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Burning Fat And Carbohydrate During Exercise -- "In a paper published in The Journal of Physiology, Helge, Stallknecht, Richter, Galbo, and Keins from Copenhagen shed light on fat oxidation during exercise and physical activity. Their observations suggest that fat oxidation during exercise reflects a fine interplay between the cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine and muscle metabolic systems. During exercise and physical activity, the primary fuels used by muscles are carbohydrate and fat."
~ Dare to Bare -- "Who cares if you aren't a size 2? Learn how to feel great about your body."
~ Multiple unhealthy habits best addressed together -- "People who simultaneously attempt to stop smoking, reduce their sodium intake and increase exercise may be more successful than those who try to change these lifestyle factors one at a time, Texas-based researchers report."
~ FDA Issues New Safety Rules for Vitamins -- "The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it is phasing in a new rule that is designed to address concerns that existing regulations allowed supplements onto the market that were contaminated or didn't contain ingredients claimed on the label."
~ Pack nutrition into your picnic basket -- "Picnics are a wonderful part of summer, but the foods that make up traditional picnic fare are rarely in step with good nutrition. With some updating, however, picnics can be delicious and nutritious."
~ Seven Ways Your Body Tells You You're Hungry ... Even When You're Not -- "Aside from some well-known culprits like stress and the holiday season (not to mention both of them combined!), there are other factors involved in over-eating that may not seem obvious, including . . . ."


PSYCHE
~ Omega-3s may hike baby’s IQ -- "Children whose mothers get enough omega-3 fatty acid during pregnancy may have sharper problem-solving skills in infancy, a small study suggests." This is old news -- I've been telling my clients this for years. If there aren't enough healthy fats in the diet, the mother's health will suffer because the baby gets first dibs.
~ Personalised drugs -- "The New York Times has an interesting opinion piece on using genetic tests to determine which psychiatric drugs will be most effective and least problematic."
~ Inside The Mind Of A Suicide Bomber -- "Suicide bombers are not mentally ill or unhinged, but acting rationally in pursuit of the 'benefits' they perceive from being part of a strict and close-knit religious enterprise, according to a University of Nottingham academic. Research by Dr David Stevens, of the School of Politics and International Relations, suggests that the widely-held view of suicide bombers as brain-washed religious fanatics, vulnerable through youth and poverty, is not an accurate one."
~ Here’s a quick, easy, free way to boost your happiness: get more SLEEP -- "Studies show that people get accustomed to being sleep-deprived. At first, they notice the effect on their mood and alertness, but before long, they adjust to that state as normal. So even if you insist that you feel fine, if you got more sleep, you might feel a lot better."
~ Summary of Goal Setting Activities -- "This article consolidates the goal setting information from several articles relating to personal development and goal setting/goal achievement."
~ Buddhist Meditation Helps People Stop Drinking -- "A combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and Buddhist meditation can help people with drinking problems turn their backs on alcohol. Dr Paramabandhu Groves, a consultant psychiatrist at the Alcohol Advisory Service in London, who has successfully run workshops with people with depression, has now turned his attention to using the techniques to help people with addictions."
~ Putting feelings into words produces therapeutic effects in the brain -- "Why does putting our feelings into words — talking with a therapist or friend, writing in a journal — help us to feel better" A new brain imaging study by UCLA psychologists reveals why verbalizing our feelings makes our sadness, anger and pain less intense."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Americans Couch Feelings About Race In The Happy Talk Of Diversity-Speak -- "According to a new study by researchers in the University of Minnesota's sociology department, Americans are generally positive -- even optimistic -- about the word 'diversity,' but when asked, even those working in the field of race relations have trouble describing diversity's value and stumble when giving real life examples."
~ Robert Wright: The Real Roots of Suicide Bombing -- "Still, seeing terrorist groups as rational actors is the first step to combatting a pernicious right-wing meme: the idea that terrorism is ultimately incoherent, grounded in pure religious zealotry or some supposed Arab irrationality or whatever. If you buy that meme, you're likely to think there's no point in even talking about serious territorial concessions in Palestine, or reconsidering American military deployment in Iraq or the Middle East broadly."
~ A bid to build centrism in US politics -- "Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg are pushing efforts to bridge the political divide."
~ And the Federal Budget Will Be 100 Percent of GDP -- "In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee yesterday, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag said spending on Medicare and Medicaid will represent one-fifth of the gross domestic product in 2050 if it continues to grow at the same rate it has during the last four decades. That's 'roughly the share of the economy now accounted for by the entire federal budget.'"
~ The Endgame for Guantanamo? -- "Amid reports that the facility will be closed, Bush hard-liners and pragmatists wrestle over its future."
~ The Cheney Branch of Government -- "The Vice President is fighting yet another call to turn over secret material, the latest reminder that he continues to play by his own rules."
~ Student Loan Reform: What to Expect -- "Students now appear likely to get a back-to-school present: loan reform. The Senate Education Committee approved relief measures this week similar to those recently passed by its House counterpart. Both full houses are expected to approve the bills later this summer, with a final version going to President Bush in September, just in time for the new school year."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ The possibilities of hemp-growing -- "Is weed the new green?"
~ Ecuador Wants Habitat on Endangered List -- "Ecuador says tourism is threatening the Galapagos Islands and has asked UNESCO to add the habitat that inspired the theory of evolution to its endangered list, the culture agency said Friday."
~ Archeologists Turn to Professional MythBusters for Stone-Age Experiment -- "In the Stone Age, prehistoric peoples created weapons by making stone projectile points and affixing them to arrow and spear shafts. Until now, no one has researched the technological advantage or disadvantage of the arrowhead to prehistoric culture."
~ 10 Ways to Green Your Spending -- "Be a positive force for change by buying different."
~ Taking animals out of laboratory research -- "Pioneering work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research —and ultimately remove them from laboratories altogether — has received a major boost at The University of Nottingham."
~ Great Lakes slowly losing water -- "Boaters on Lake Superior said the water is so low it appears the world's largest freshwater lake is disappearing."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Mind Outside the Body (Part 6) -- Deepak Chopra -- "Explorations into the mind field will become more fascinating as time unfolds. But at least one finding has its share of entertainment value. A few years ago the adventurous British researcher Rupert Sheldrake received an e-mail from a woman in New York City who said that her African gray parrot not only read her thoughts but responded to them with speech."
~ BLOG: Guest Blog: Integrative Spirituality: Grounded Contemporary Perspectives (by Bruce Alderman) -- "In this essay, I will not attempt a comprehensive statement on the nature of integrative spirituality, but will offer several perspectives on it which have been helpful to me and which guide me in my own inquiry and practice."
~ Knowledge, Wisdom and Ignorance -- "In my last post, I wrote – perhaps somewhat flippantly – about ignorance and about how any kind of practice presupposes a degree of ignorance. It is probably necessary, however, to explore this claim a little more, because whilst I think that it is not at all unreasonable, at the same time it seems to me as if it could be easily misconstrued."
~ Seamlessness of psychology and spirituality, practice and daily life -- "Before Ground awakens to itself, it makes sense to do practices that invites Ground to notice itself and also makes it easier to be who we take ourselves to be. Why leave one out?"
~ Interview with Ken Wilber you haven't read -- "In it KW makes the point that I've made a few time about the problems of taking the idea of fixed stage development with no cultural variation. That is, judging other cultures with the same stage development lens that we would our own. This is done by the majority of people who study AQAL, I think because it doesn't have a culture concept. But, KW is fully aware of the issue it seems. Actually it seems like a non-issue with him."
~ Witnessing the Witness -- A discussion at the Zaadz I-I pod worth looking at -- it's a long thread.


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