Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Speedlinking 5/22/07

Quote of the day:

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Blood on the Barbell: Waterbury -- "Blood on the Barbell is our new series describing workouts to do when your woman left you, your momma' don't love you, and even your dog doesn't care much for you. This time it's Chad Waterbury who's unloved." This series comes at the perfect time.
~ Grocery Cart Makeover -- "Find out the best foods for your diet."
~ FDA approves period suppression pill (AP) -- "The first birth-control pill meant to put a stop to women's monthly periods indefinitely won federal approval Tuesday. Called Lybrel, it's the first such pill to receive Food and Drug Administration approval for continuous use. When taken daily, the pill can halt women's menstrual periods indefinitely and prevent pregnancies."
~ Keeping Weight Off in Youth Pays Off in Old Age (HealthDay) -- "Staying trim and healthy in younger years can lead to a healthier, more mobile old age, U.S. researchers say."
~ Tims don't look anything like Bobs -- "Names tend to be associated with certain facial features — Bobs have rounder faces than Tims, for example — and it's easier to learn a person's name if his face matches it." Weird.
~ Diet pill isn't magic bullet, company says -- "You won’t lose weight in your sleep or shed pounds while eating anything you want — that’s the sobering message from the maker of a weight-loss pill poised to hit shelves next month."
~ Retinol reduces age-related wrinkles -- "Treatment with retinol lotion can smooth the fine wrinkles that occur with age, and can also make the skin better able to withstand injury and resist ulcer formation, new research indicates."


PSYCHE
~ Are Food Addictions Real? -- "The Today show contributor Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom gives you the scoop on food addictions."
~ Men more prone to depression after a divorce, study finds -- "The stereotype might be that a man relishes trading his wife for a fast car or a younger woman, but a new study finds that men appear to take separation harder than women."
~ Achieving Rapport: Expressivity, Coordination and Flow -- "Rapport is important. We need rapport to influence others, to teach and learn, to achieve difficult tasks in groups and even to mate. The latest research reveals gaining rapport is not just about matching body language and being positive, the picture is actually much more complicated."
~ The Excesses Of Eating Disorders -- "We may feel inspired to shed a few pounds, but most of us don't take these media messages too seriously. For the small minority of people with eating disorders, however, the relentless pursuit of an ideal body can have dire or even deadly consequences."
~ Brain Scan Can Help Predict Antidepressant Efficacy -- "One of the real challenges in treating depression can be finding the right prescription for each patient. Once a physician and client have decided that antidepressants will be useful in the treatment process, they must then begin to identify which of the nearly 20 FDA approved antidpressant compounds will be best for that particular case."
~ The Prince of Reason -- "Albert Ellis tackles irrational beliefs."
~ The Summer of Self-Acceptance -- "By self-acceptance, I do not mean a passive ability to congratulate and praise oneself unconditionally. Instead, a positive psychology version of self-acceptance should be defined as a positive self-regard or a general sense of happiness or satisfaction in oneself."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Another "Bushie" Takes the Fifth -- "The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued an announcement: At a deposition earlier this month, Susan Ralston, the former executive assistant to Karl Rove, responded to questions in a number of areas but would not answer questions about White House contacts with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and her lawyer said Ms. Ralston would assert her Fifth Amendment privilege if compelled to testify."
~ Why Lebanon Is Erupting Again -- "Syria may once again be the instigator behind the turmoil, but al-Qaeda and its allies are likely to reap the benefits."
~ 4 Presidential Hopefuls Agree on Climate Policy -- "At the Brookings Institution this morning, a panel of policy advisers to four leading presidential contenders engaged in what one jokingly called "violent agreement" on issues of climate change."
~ Staunch Or Deluded? Bush Is Both -- "'Is He Resolute—or Delusional?' That was the question on the cover of the May 14 issue of U.S. News & World Report. Tough call, but I'm going with resolute and delusional. President Bush is resolute about Iraq, delusional about America."
~ James Dobson, Drama Queen -- "In last week's episode of The Bachelor, also known as the GOP presidential debates, we learned that the tough-talking, sassy little cross-dressing firecracker from Manhattan [Giuliani] was too racy for Dr. James Dobson."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ NYC's Taxi Fleet Going Green by 2012 -- "New York city's yellow taxi fleet will go entirely hybrid within five years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday."
~ Smokies to Rid Areas of Nonnative Plants -- "Privet, multiflora rose bushes and Japanese honeysuckle all have their place in the suburban landscape, but not in the wetlands of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park."
~ Denver Zoo monkey dies of plague -- "A hooded capuchin monkey at the Denver Zoo has died of the plague, which officials suspect was transmitted by a squirrel."
~ Study: Climate Change May Imperil Plants -- "Climate change could drive many wild relatives of plants such as the potato and the peanut into extinction, threatening a valuable source of genes necessary to help these food crops fight pests and drought, an international research group said Tuesday."
~ Group: European Mammals Face Extinction -- "Dozens of European mammals, including the Iberian lynx, the Saiga antelope and the Mediterranean monk seal, face extinction unless immediate measures are taken to protect them, a conservation group said Tuesday."
~ House Approves Bill to Combat Spyware -- "The House passed legislation Tuesday to combat the criminal use of Internet spyware and scams aimed at stealing personal information from computer users."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Radical Secularist Agenda -- "Usually by the time I get a chance to post, so many things are piled up that I don't know where to start. I find that a perfect moment to practice. Right before plunging in, as it were, into the abyss. But Newt Gingrich's speech against “radical secularism” at Liberty University has been on my mind, and I'd like to add a few comments to what's already being said here and there on the blogosphere."
~ The Radical Spirituality of Generation X, Part 4: Committed Love in Action -- "The energy hit me in a wave. Gripped by the spirit of the forest, I dropped to my knees and began to sob. Surrounded by these ancient giants, I felt the sensory film caused by our fast-paced, technologically dependent society melt away. I could feel my whole being bursting forth into new life in this majestic cathedral."
~ 33 New Ways To Overclock Your Brain -- "You have, contained between your ears, an extraordinary potential that contemporary neuroscientists believe is “virtually limitless”. The brain is medicine’s final frontier and no one knows all there is to know, but you’re better off believing that, like muscles, motors and mainframes, your brain needs to keep moving to stay in top form."
~ Reformulating -- "I want to explore how to reformulate the usual ways of talking about the bodywork I am doing, as the standard terminology does not quite work for me… how can I talk about it in a way that is close to the recommended way, yet also true for me?"
~ No mind but Mind? Or are minds incorporated in Mind? -- "One thing that struck me when reading an online discussion on Chan recently is the old conundrum over words like "mind" and "heart" as well as "arising". I think when many people hear "mind" they think of an individual unit, such as your mind or my mind. The same with "heart". Moreover, the word mind is used to refer to cognitive processes involving perception and intellect, which combine to produce phenomena such as imagination and memory. On the other hand, the word heart is often taken to mean desire and emotional attachment/response. So with such thinking I can show the form of someone's heart by getting them to reveal their desires, their hopes, their fears, etc. Similar we can do the same with someone's mind."
~ Conversations: Albert Einstein vs. a Crow -- "How smart are we humans? The answer obviously depends on how one wants to define the word 'smart.'"


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