Friday, February 16, 2007

Speedlinking 2/16/07

Quote of the day:

"Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."
~ H. Mumford Jones

Image of the day
:


BODY
~ I Wonder... -- By John Berardi at T-Nation: "During some Spike-induced clarity of thought, Berardi expounds on overeating, overcoming average genetics, success, Dave Tate, and a whole bunch of other stuff. You know what? This guy has wisdom! Screw you Tony Robbins! Screw you Deepak! Who needs ya'?"
~ BONUS ARTICLE: Unilateral Work for Building Muscle -- By Christian Thibaudeau at T-Nation: "You probably never thought about it, but most people can't produce as much force using two bilateral limbs to perform an exercise as they can if they perform the exercise with each limb individually and then add together the force of each side. It's called the bilateral deficit and you should take advantage of it to pack on some muscle."
~ Exercise And Fluid Replacement Position Stand Now Available - American College Of Sports Medicine Releases New, Revised Hydration Recommendations -- "The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) today released an updated Position Stand, Exercise and Fluid Replacement, placing emphasis on customized or individualized hydration regimens and offering details on hydration before, during, and after exercise."
~ Dieting May Increase Your Cravings for Chocolate -- "Women who diet may crave chocolate and other "forbidden foods" more than women who didn't diet, according to a study published in the March issue of Appetite."
~ When pregnant mom eats fish, kids do better: study -- "Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none, researchers said on Thursday in findings they called surprising." It's all about the omega-3 fats.
~ Human brain can make new cells, study finds -- "New evidence shows that the human brain can manufacture fresh brain cells, researchers said on Thursday in a study that may lead to better ways to treat brain damage and disease."
~ Chemical Pathway Discovered That Causes Mice To Overeat And Gain Weight -- "The Scripps Research team discovered that mice genetically altered to lack a molecule known as the EP3 receptor tend to be more active during their normal sleep cycle and to eat more. In the study, this led to weight increases of up to 30 percent relative to mice with the receptors."
~ Women's Health: A Better Breast-Cancer Treatment? -- "Taking tamoxifen for five years after breast-cancer surgery nearly halves the risk of a recurrence in women whose cancer's growth is fueled by estrogen. But a newer class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors has been gaining favor, with many studies suggesting that these medications can boost survival even more when used after tamoxifen therapy or even in place of the older drug."


PSYCHE
~ Religious faith may help stroke victims: study -- "People of faith have long contended that the power of prayer can help heal the sick. Now a study conducted in Rome suggests that religious faith may help people recover from a stroke." It's more about the stress reduction associated with spiritual beliefs.
~ Don't Allow Insecurities to Harm Your Immune System -- "It's encouraging to see conventional medicine may be finally starting to get a real clue about the vital link between emotions and a patient's physical health, especially with the raft of studies that have emerged lately. This most recent research links a feeling of insecurity among women in close relationships to signs of a weaker immune system."
~ All about the Big Ohhhh -- "Our last column about women’s sexual satisfaction apparently, umm, hit a nerve. We were flooded with questions about orgasms. Here is a small sampling that we hope will fill in some details."
~ Dopamine for Dummies [Developing Intelligence] -- "Dopamine is probably the most studied neurotransmitter, and yet the neuroscience literature contains a huge variety of perspectives on its functional role. This post summarizes a systems-level perspective on the function of dopamine that has motivated several successful drug studies and informed the construction of artificial neural network models."
~ How To Erase The Effects Of Stress -- "Exercises that elicit the relaxation response can help your body erase the cumulative effects of stress, according to "Stress Management: Techniques for Preventing and Easing Stress," a new report from Harvard Medical School."
~ Faces, faces everywhere -- "The New York Times has a brief article on why we have a tendency to see faces in chaotic or almost random visual scenes."
~ Do men and women react differently to stress? -- "Valentine's Day brought no truce in the age-old battle between the sexes, as Steven Landsburg's controversial article claiming that women perform worse than men under pressure provoked something close to the excoriation wrought upon Larry Summers after ill-received remarks about the aptitude of women in the sciences."


CULTURE
~ Breastfed Babies Become Upwardly Mobile Adults -- "UK researchers have found that breastfeeding children confers greater upward social mobility in adulthood than bottle feeding. And the link was still significant when other childhood factors normally used to predict social mobility were taken into account.The 60 year follow up study is published in the online edition of the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood."
~ Giuliani Shifts Abortion Speech Gently to Right -- "Mr. Giuliani has highlighted a different element of his thinking on the abortion debate. He has talked about how he would appoint “strict constructionist” judges to the Supreme Court — what abortion rights advocates say is code among conservatives for those who seek to overturn or limit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court ruling declaring a constitutional right to abortion." Weasel.
~ Congress revives push for FDA tobacco authority -- "A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers renewed on Thursday an effort to authorize the government to regulate cigarettes as a drug, winning praise from anti-smoking forces and the maker of Marlboro cigarettes."
~ Democratic Salvation and the 'Religious' Left [Mike the Mad Biologist] -- "There's an interesting interview with Mara Vanderslice about her attempts to integrate 'religious' people (i.e., Christian--funny how Jews and Muslims, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic aren't part of the 'religious' left according to Vanderslice) into the Democratic party."
~ George Will: Breaking down candidates' decisions -- "Two Democratic presidential candidates with national campaign experience are stumbling. A Republican candidate who has run only municipal campaigns is confounding expectations, calling into question some assumptions about Republican voters."
~ Bush Fails to Reassure -- "President Bush did nothing at yesterday's news conference to reassure those who think his administration may once again be using faulty intelligence to build a case for war."
~ Introducing "The Gavel" -- "Hey, Nancy Pelosi has a new blog, and it's legit! It's called "The Gavel," and it's a boon to C-SPAN junkies who can't watch TV during work hours. There's all sorts of neat video up now from House floor debate and Congressional hearings. It's wonky but cool. Also, be warned that it's kind of slow loading, either because there is so much video or because a ton of people are checking it out."
~ Vice-president Cheney under scrutiny -- "A glimpse into the vice-president's secret world."
~ Has Jim Carrey Flipped Out? -- "The film funnyman is trying to rebound from a career slump with a new thriller - and a new spiritual path. Joel Stein peeks into the eternal weirdness of Jim Carrey's mind." I actually Carrey when he's not "on" -- there's something comforting about a depressed comedian.
~ Stone "Tools" Found; May Be Among America's Oldest -- "About 50 objects found at a Minnesota construction site could be at least 13,000 years old, archaeologists said, potentially pushing back human presence in the region by millennia."
~ From The Zero Boss (who else?) -- Shave Everywhere: A Man’s Guide to Taking Your Razor South of the Border.


HABITATS
~ Southern states tops for heart disease -- "West Virginia and Kentucky — states known for high levels of obesity, diabetes and smoking — have the highest proportion of people with heart disease in the nation, U.S. health officials said Thursday."
~ USDA Breaks Environmental Laws By Approving GM Crop -- "In a refreshing turn away from the unethical biopharming of America, a U.S. District Court judge in California ruled the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated environmental laws when the agency approved a genetically modified (GM) kind of alfalfa developed by Monsanto without calling for an environmental impact statement."
~ Mama cat adopts Rottweiler puppy -- "Who says cats and dogs don’t get along? Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat that has adopted a 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother."
~ Socioeconomics' role in heart disease -- "A recent study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine suggests that there is a risk factor that you may not have taken into account: Living in a low-income neighborhood."
~ America's diabetes epidemic -- "Fighting diabetes is as much a social problem as a scientific one."
~ Antarctic Temperatures Disagree with Climate Model Predictions -- "A new report on climate over the world`s southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models."
~ DNA might be used to store various data -- "Japanese scientists say it might be possible to use DNA to store text, images, music and other digital data for thousands of years inside living organisms." Okay, that's just freaky.
~ Theory aims to describe fundamental properties of materials -- "Gold is shiny, diamonds are transparent, and iron is magnetic. Why is that? The answer lies with a material `s electronic structure, which determines its electrical, optical, and magnetic properties."
~ Spaceship finds hard evidence of water on Mars -- "High-resolution camera finds evidence water once ran under planet's surface."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Camille's back! -- Hat tip to Steve at Once a Day -- Paglia is back at Salon with her monthly column. Woo Hoo!
~ Andrew Cohen is back again: Making Enlightenment Meaningful.
~ From Mystery of Existence: Perceptual center as anchor for a sense of a separate self and Spirit and soul allowing a shift from tragedy to comedy.
~ From ~C4Chaos: Oprah Goes Paranormal.
~ From Jean at The Woodshed: Patti Smith to Artists: Get a Job!
~ From Julian at Zaadz: The Secret: L.A. Times VS Oprah.
~ From Paul Salamone: The Stolen Milliseconds of Life Online -- Dude, the story of my life.
~ Buddhist Geeks ask Let’s Talk: What’s Your Practice?
~ Sentient Development offers Buddha Break 2007.02.15, a collection of Buddhist links.


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