Friday, June 01, 2007

Speedlinking 6/1/07

Quote of the day:

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
~
Mark Twain


Image of the day:


BODY
~ Muscle Soreness is Necessary for Improvement -- "If you go out and jog the same two miles at the same pace, day after day, you will never become faster, stronger or have greater endurance. If you stop lifting weights when your muscles start to burn, you won't feel sore on the next day and you will not become stronger. All improvement in any muscle function comes from stressing and recovering."
~ Change you life with a bunch of little questions -- "The next process is 100 questions or so that you need to ask yourself in a deliberate manner from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to sleep at night. Some of these questions you ask too often and some of these questions you never ask yourself. This is the stuff of your life and once you question it you can make 100 little changes and your life will never be the same."
~ Nutrition Tip: Go Bananas! -- "If you need to recharge your batteries before your evening workout, then the fruit in the yellow jacket is perfect for you." Unless you are trying to lose fat.
~ Jet Lag Is All About Chemical Reactions In Cells -- "Circadian clocks regulate the timing of biological functions in almost all higher organisms. Anyone who has flown through several time zones knows the jet lag that can result when this timing is disrupted."
~ Spider venom may yield virility -- "Scientists have discovered a potentially marketable contraceptive in the venom of Chile’s black widow spider, whose bite is fatal to many but can also cause prolonged, painful and involuntary erections in men."
~ New diet shrinks calories, carbon footprint (AFP) -- "A soon-to-be-published weight-loss book helps dieters reduce not just their intake of calories, but the negative impact of their food consumption choices on the environment."
~ Nifty Flash Reflexology Map -- "Most Flash sites make me cringe. This one, however, is lacking the semi-standard lame techno track & glacial load time. It’s a handy map of your foot with reflexology areas all laid out for you to poke and prod."


PSYCHE
~ Brain Electrodes Zap Depression -- "Deep brain stimulation may offer help for severely depressed patients."
~ Smoking may increase risk of depression -- "Persistent smokers appear to be at increased risk for becoming depressed compared to never smokers, results of a long-term study of Finnish twins suggest. On the other hand, this association was not seen in individuals who stopped smoking many years ago."
~ Diners Spend More In Lavender-Scented Restaurant -- "The effects of smell are rarely researched in psychological studies. That's why it's great to come across this study by Gueguen and Petr (2006) on the effect of different smells on how much time and money people spend in a restaurant. But not, as you might imagine, the smell of the food, but the smell of lavender."
~ How employers can help boost the happiness of their employees (and how you can boost your own happiness) -- "Yesterday I made the case that employers should care whether their employees are happy: happier people outscore their less-happy peers on performance and productivity. So how can employers help make their employees happier?"
~ Freud, neurobiology and psychotherapy -- "American TV discussion host Charlie Rose has a series of programmes available online where some of the world's leading researchers discuss Freud, neurobiology and the latest in psychological treatments for mental illness." I saw the first one of these and it was awesome.
~ The A.P.E. Method to Get Out of a Bad Mood -- "You may be wondering, should I get out of a bad mood? Suppose that our answer is already, YES. Now, what do we do? Karen Reivich, co-author with Andrew Shatte of The Resilience Factor, suggests some concrete steps."
~ My Turn: The Real Burden of Eating Disorders -- "At a clinic for anorexia sufferers, I found real girls behind the sensationalized images of this tragic disorder."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ William Meredith: 1919-2007 -- "According to the poet Edward Hirsch, Meredith "has looked generously and hard at our common human world...his work reverberates with old-fashioned terms such as fairness, morale, cheerfulness, joy and happiness." Meredith passed away on May 30, 2007, at the age of 88."
~ Public Gives Clinton, Giuliani Best Odds of Winning Nominations -- "According to a recent Gallup Panel survey, the public thinks Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani have the best chances of winning their party's 2008 presidential nominations. Clinton is given slightly better odds than Barack Obama among the Democratic field of candidates."
~ Fired McCain Campaign Aides Sound Off -- "Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities." McCain's hypocrisy in action.
~ Clift: How Osama bin Laden Haunts Bush -- "Al Qaeda had a plan—and it is working. Osama bin Laden’s survival may be the Bush administration’s biggest political failing."
~ With an Empire to Build, Who Needs an Iraqi Parliament? -- "Away from the media's gaze toward partisan politics, however, a much more significant story was developing in Baghdad that essentially went unreported. On May 8, a majority of Iraq's parliament signed a petition demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops. But the United States isn't listening to that message, much less heeding it."
~ 'Sgt. Pepper' at 40 -- "There's a lot of irony to the celebrations today of the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles' landmark record could have been the beginning of something grand, an era in which ears, minds, and imaginations opened and grew wide with possibility; in hindsight, however, it seems more like the last gasp of a vibe that, even as early as 1967's "Summer of Love," was already giving way to a sensibility more hollow-eyed, desperate, and mercenary."
~ Bush's Climate-Change Feint -- "The White House yesterday showed that it still knows how to play the American press like a harp."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Google Super-Brain to Harvest Human Behavior -- "Google is planning to build a powerful “human database” computer, and has full backing from the U.S. government to do so. What is the database going to do? Provide a “general life assistant” that will be able to predict what you might need before you even realize it."
~ iPhone's Secret Ingredient: Google -- "When it comes to Apple's widely anticipated new gadget, both companies are starting to see the benefits of friendship."
~ iTunes new audio format -- "This week, Apple's iTunes Music Store began selling some songs in a new audio format that the company says has two advantages over its previous offerings: The tracks are free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, meaning you can play them on devices other than an iPod, and they have higher audio quality. The new iTunes Plus tracks also come at a premium: $1.29 compared with $0.99 for the old format."
~ Google Buys Feed Distributor FeedBurner -- "Online search leader Google Inc. said Friday it purchased FeedBurner, which helps bloggers and podcasters syndicate and make money from their online content, for an undisclosed sum."
~ Astronomers Find Their Third Planet With Novel Telescope Network -- "Astronomers using the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES) network of small telescopes are announcing today their discovery of a planet twice the mass of Jupiter that passes in front of its star every 31 hours. The planet is in the constellation Hercules and has been named TrES-3 as the third planet found with the TrES network."
~ Recycled garden compost reduces phosphorus in soils -- "Broccoli, eggplant, cabbage and capsicum grown with compost made from recycled garden offcuts have produced equivalent yields to those cultivated by conventional farm practice, but without the subsequent build up of phosphorus."
~ Japan warned over whaling plans, threatens to quit IWC -- "Japan was warned Friday it risks international anger if it includes endangered humpbacks in its annual whale cull, after threatening to pull out of the 75-nation International Whaling Commission."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Big Mind. Buddha Mind. One Mind -- "Since me and you really are interdependent, dependently arising and empty of inherently existing essence, there really is no me and there really is no you. So, how about that parking space, can I have it?"
~ How about a nice game of 3-D chess? -- "This week on Integral Spiritual Center...."
~ Conversations: The Buddhist Blogs -- "Here are some excellent recent posts from the Buddhist blogs. Enjoy!"
~ Belly center neutrality -- "Each center has it’s own form of “one taste”, and each one can appear in different ways."


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