Thursday, February 15, 2007

Speedlinking 2/15/07

Quote of the day:

"I am not young enough to know everything."
~ Oscar Wilde

Image of the day:


BODY

~ Fitness Has Fallen Since The Days Of Ancient Greece -- "We may not be as fit as the people of ancient Athens, despite all that modern diet and training can provide, according to research by University of Leeds (UK) exercise physiologist, Dr Harry Rossiter."
~ Can Humans Develop Immunity to Bird Flu? -- "A Leading Researcher Reverses Course and Now Says It's Possible."
~ Calcium, vitamin D boost reduces fractures -- "Very active young women who took higher-than-recommended doses of calcium and vitamin D supplements for eight weeks had fewer stress fractures than women who were given dummy pills, a study of Naval recruits showed."
~ AIDS virus weakness detected -- "Scientists have captured an image of the AIDS virus in a biological handshake with the immune cells it attacks, and said on Wednesday they hope this can help lead to a better vaccine against the incurable disease."
~ Coffee doesn't appear to raise heart attack risk -- "Drinking coffee does not appear to increase the risk of heart attack, according to a study of older Swedish women, and it may even be protective." All hail the sacred bean.
~ Less-intense workouts may be less effective -- "Low-intensity endurance exercise is not as effective as moderate intensity endurance exercise for promoting fitness, German researchers found in a controlled study." If you can talk or read while doing cardio, you're mostly wasting your time.
~ Better Natural Options for Breast Implants -- "Considering the many concerns surrounding the end of virtually any restrictions on silicone-gel breast implants Japanese scientists may have uncovered a safer option using stem cells."


PSYCHE
~ Study: Fish oil unlikely to ease depression -- "Despite some evidence linking depression with low levels of omega-3 fatty acids, there is currently no convincing evidence that the acids alone can relieve depression, according to a report published this week." Seems that science sometimes needs a burning bush and the word of God to believe something is true.
~ Take out the trash? Why husbands don't listen -- "When a man fails to help out around the house, his poor performance might be related to a subconscious tendency to resist doing anything his wife wants, a new study suggests." Dumbasses.
~ A transhumanist dictionary -- "George Dvorsky has published a guide to the terms and buzzwords of transhumanism - an optimistic movement that seeks to apply current and future scientific discoveries to extending human experience and abilities."
~ Adult Relationship Problems May Stem from Childhood Insecurities -- Ya think?
~ Genius is . . . -- "I ran into some semantic trouble over dim-sum lunch the other day with two friends, Andy and Jim. They had a lot to say about the issues raised on this blog, but we kept getting stuck on terminology, starting with the word 'genius.'"
~ Selection of Antidepressants, Pt. 3 [The Corpus Callosum] -- "It occurs to me that in order to go any farther explaining how to choose an antidepressant, I should take a moment to explain the concept of an adequate trial."
~ Transform Your Partner Into the Perfect Mate -- "Five winning strategies to save your relationship." Yeah, if you have "fix" your partner, you're screwed.
~ How to Seduce a Lover -- "A practical guide to body language and seduction."
~ Taking a Deeper Look at Love -- "[T]his year a number of publications and blogs are taking a serious look at the psychological and physiological questions behind the nebulous concept of love."
~ Mysteries of childhood cognition studied -- "U.S. scientists are trying to determine how children develop cognitive skills and how memory affects their judgments."


CULTURE
~ Report: Teens Abusing Prescription Drugs -- "Junior's been helping himself to Mother's little helper. That's the conclusion of a report released Wednesday by White House drug czar John Walters that found while U.S. teenagers' use of marijuana is declining, their abuse of prescription drugs is holding steady or in some cases increasing...."
~ Why you love sis, but not in a weird way -- "Researchers who wanted to find out why it is not only taboo to kiss your sister, but also disgusting, said Wednesday they have discovered why in a discovery that challenges some basic tenets of Freudian theory."
~ New York rolls out nation's first city-branded condom -- "New York authorities unveiled the country's first city-themed condom to mark Valentine's Day and National Condom Day, in a bid to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies."
~ Cardiac arrest -- "Quick links from this year's Valentine's psychology stories."
~ Al Franken to Run for US Senate -- And see this, too: Senator Franken? Or this: "Hi, I'm Al Franken, And I'm Running For The United States Senate"
~ Obama: better than civil rights! -- "Is Barack Obama the Good Shepherd? To answer this question, Slate has been gathering gratuitously adoring biographical details from newspaper, television, and magazine profiles of the U.S. senator from Illinois, best-selling author, Harvard Law Review president, Men's Vogue cover model, Grammy winner, possible telepathic communicator with space aliens from distant galaxies, and declared presidential candidate."
~ Bush's Mixed Messages on Iran -- "Bush seems to be intentionally sending mixed messages on Iran."
~ The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, an intellectual history -- "In its 41 years on newsstands, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has been hailed as the arbiter of supermodel succession (Tiegs to Porizkova, Macpherson to Ireland) and as a commercial juggernaut ($35 million in ad sales this year). But it has yet to be celebrated as a magazine with the kind of sophisticated intellectual framework of, say, the Partisan Review. We plan on advancing that argument, just as soon as we finish ogling Carolyn Murphy."


HABITATS
~ Yale Biologists 'trick' Viruses Into Extinction -- "While human changes to the environment cause conservation biologists to worry about species extinction, Yale biologists are reversing the logic by trying to trap viruses in habitats that force their extinction, according to a report in Ecology Letters."
~ LSU professor resolves Einstein's twin paradox -- "Subhash Kak, Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU, recently resolved the twin paradox, known as one of the most enduring puzzles of modern-day physics."
~ D-Wave Demonstrated World's First Commercial Quantum Computer -- "The world's first commercially viable quantum computer was demonstrated yesterday in Silicon Valley by D-Wave Systems, Inc., a privately-held Canadian firm."
~ Scientists Dubious of Quantum Claims -- "Quantum computing is such an elusive goal that even the company claiming to have the "world's first commercial quantum computer" acknowledged it isn't entirely sure the machine is performing true quantum calculations."
~ Study: Burying Greenhouse Gas Could Work -- "Storing carbon dioxide underground to reduce the amount of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere may be a safer method than previously thought." Uh-huh, sure.
~ Monster Glowing Squid Caught on Camera -- "Mysterious deep-sea giants that use their bioluminescent arms to dazzle and catch prey have been filmed for the first time ever in the wild. With videos."
~
Better designed roadway intersections can boost older drivers` performance -- "Changes in roadway intersection design can keep older drivers safer and on the road longer, report University of Florida researchers in the current issue of Traffic Injury Prevention."
~ Scientists Elucidate the Origin of the Darkest Galaxies in the Universe -- "Ghostly galaxies composed almost entirely of dark matter speckle the universe. Unlike normal galaxies, these extreme systems contain very few stars and are almost devoid of gas. Most of the luminous matter, so common in most galaxies, has been stripped away, leaving behind a dark matter shadow."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ I Was a Zen Drop-out -- "When a teacher of Buddhism ditches her practice for motherhood, the real enlightenment begins."
~ Biblical Sociology -- "Been reading a great deal of Norman Gottwald for a class I have on the Hebrew Bible. Gottwald brought about a massive change in the way the "Old Testament" is read--from arguments about whether or not the stories in the Bible (like Exodus, Genesis) "really happened" to a social-scientific reading of the texts."
~ From Buddhist Geeks: The Stages of Insight: Is Progress Bad?
~ From the Ririan Project: 10 Timeless Lessons From Dalai Lama.
~ From ISC: Integral Zen / Integral Bodywork Seminars!
~ What's Holding Us Back? -- "I have argued that the modern world is in many ways a prison, and we are tugged along within its walls for most of our lives by a tension between three forces."


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