Thursday, March 22, 2007

Speedlinking 3/22/07

Quote of the day:

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."
~ Howard Aiken

Image of the day:


BODY
~ 25 Years, 25 Mistakes -- "Coach Boyle's been dragging his calloused butt through the weighlifting business for 25 years. During that time he's made a few mistakes, but luckily for you whippersnappers, he wants to save you from making those same mistakes."
~ Cardio Can Make You Smarter -- "This week’s issue of Newsweek has a cover story about exercise and the brain. Scientists now believe that cardiovascular exercise can make people smarter. The evolving theory is that cardio helps create a chemical in the brain that improves memory and intelligence. The full story is accessible on Newsweek’s web site."
~ Plant foods may cut breast cancer risk -- "Postmenopausal women who eat healthy amounts of plant foods rich in estrogen-like compounds called lignans may reduce their risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new study."
~ Chinese restaurant food unhealthy -- "The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found." Damn.
~ Dietary patterns linked to type 2 diabetes risk -- "Avoiding meats and fatty foods and eating lots of salads and cooked vegetables appears to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to study findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology." We shouldn't avoid all meats, just fatty meats.
~ Heavy coffee drinkers show no blood pressure rise -- "Coffee lovers who are in good health may have little reason to cut back, at least as far as their blood pressure is concerned, a new study suggests."
~ Living With Fibromyalgia -- "An essay that looks at what Fibromyalgia (FMS) is, and how it effects the lives of sufferers."


PSYCHE
~ Spleen can be good for the brain -- "Testosterone-fuelled people seem to enjoy provoking anger in others, according to a study of people's responses to angry faces."
~ Future recall: your mind can slip through time -- "If you thought memory was all about making a record of the past, think again."
~ Risk Taking And Virtual Racing Games Linked -- "Psychologists have taken the "media priming" effects of popular video console and PC-based games on the road, finding that virtual racing seems to lead to aggressive driving and a propensity for risk taking."
~ An Idle Mind, or More? Alpha Oscillations and Consciousness [Developing Intelligence] -- "In the new issue of Seed, Douglas Hofstadter talks about "strange loops" - his term for patterns of level-crossing feedback inside some medium (such as neurons) - and their role in consciousness."
~ Why It's OK To Be Depressed Sometimes -- "The modern Western mindset has it that depression is an abnormal state. That when you're a bit down, it means you have a medical problem that requires treatment. Of course, this isn't necessarily true. While depression is clearly a major problem for many people that does require treatment of some type, do we all need to be treated every time we are down?"
~ Fulfilling Your Potential -- "Maslow studied self-accepting, self-aware, spontaneous people (like Abe Lincoln) who found their calling. Being all you can be is a measurable, attainable goal!"
~ Why Do Bad Things Happen? -- "Learn the three steps you can take when bad things come into your life." Simplistic but useful.
~ 60 Ways to Say I Love You -- "Boosting your relationship in little (but hugely important) ways can help you overcome intimacy issues, develop close connections, and spice up your love life!"
~ Moral judgment fails without feelings -- "Consider the following scenario: someone you know has AIDS and plans to infect others, some of whom will die. Your only options are to let it happen or to kill the person. Do you pull the trigger?"


CULTURE
~ Study Finds 56M Lack Access To Basic Health Care -- "'Access Denied: A Look at America's Medically Disenfranchised,' National Association of Community Health Centers: The study by NACHC and the Robert Graham Center examines access to basic health care among U.S. residents of all races and ethnicities, income levels and insurance statuses."
~ The hostile New Age takeover of yoga -- "Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against yoga—or Eastern disciplines in general. In fact, I've done tai chi exercises for many years."
~ The Executive Privilege Showdown -- "There could be one if Congress rejects the White House's offer to interview aides in private over the U.S. attorneys firings. Would the president's argument win out?"
~ The Evolution of the Evolution Debate -- "The debate over evolution doesn't come down to God vs. Darwin. Many perspectives are somewhere in between."
~ Jimmy Carter's Bible-Study Teachings -- "As a new collection of his Bible-study teachings hits the market, the 39th president speaks out--on his vision of God, the might of the religious right and the fallout from his controversial book about Palestine."
~ Spartans Overwhelmed at Thermopylae, Again -- "A technically exciting videogame of a film, "300" loses touch with a critical and moving event in Greek history."
~ What It Means to Be a Leftist in the 21st Century -- "Professor, culture critic, and social justice advocate Cornel West talks about the need to make radical reformism fashionable among young people again."
~ Indications of Obfuscation -- "Among the many lessons of the Scooter Libby trial is this one: That when the White House issues squirrelly statements under fire, the most cynical interpretations may well be the closest to the truth."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Crops Feel The Heat As The World Warms -- "Over a span of two decades, warming temperatures have caused annual losses of roughly $5 billion for major food crops, according to a new study by researchers at the Carnegie Institution and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory."
~ Rating the Best Workplace Democracies -- "Democracy and business seem to operate in completely separate worlds. But that belief is a problem for the corporate world, says Traci Fenton, founder of WorldBlu. Her company studies democracy in the workplace and came up with a list of the most democratic businesses."
~ Will Viacom Kill the Video Star? -- "The media giant's billion-dollar lawsuit against YouTube may change the online video landscape -- and introduce a new interpretation of copyright law."
~ Scientists Study Sacred Sounds -- "Blasting heavenly tunes in hallowed halls, researchers find the acoustic quirks that help churches get the message across."
~ Gore Implores Congress to Save Planet -- "Former Vice President Al Gore testified before House and Senate panels today about a 'true planetary emergency.'"
~ New Service Creates Custom News Sites -- "A new service lets visitors create custom news sites centered around niche hobbies, business ventures and other special interests, pulling stories on the topic from some 25,000 news sources."
~ River Dolphin Closer to Extinction Despite Reports, Experts Say -- "Asia's critically endangered Irrawaddy river dolphin may be in greater danger of extinction than ever—not less, as the government of Cambodia recently announced."
~ Map of relationships among scientific paradigms -- "A map of relationships among scientific paradigms has been constructed based on roughly 800,000 published papers sorted into 776 different scientific paradigms, based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Towards an immanent spiritual life? -- From Michael Bauwens at the P2P Foundation.
~ The Glass Ceiling of Enlightenment -- From Vince at Buddhist geeks.
~ He Turned His Awareness to What Was Before Him -- From Mike at Unknowing Mind.
~ Slow Down!!! Serenity Ahead!!! -- From Dharmashanti.
~ Epistemological indeterminacy -- From Ed Berge at Open Integral.
~ Love and Marriage: Going Beyond “You Complete Me” -- "Kimi has some thoughts today on monogamy, marriage, and what we should and shouldn’t expect from our relationships. She does a great job in a single sentence of bursting the Western romance myth: 'We don’t expect one friend to fulfill all our needs for connection and intimacy in our friendships, and yet we demand that of our partners, putting tremendous pressure on that person we love to be everything for us.'"


No comments: