Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Speedlinking 2/21/07

Quote of the day:

"They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse."
~ Emily Dickinson

Image of the day:


BODY
~ The Full Throttle Program: Simple Methods to Develop Fighting Endurance -- "Most conditioning programs for mixed martial artists involve equipment that just isn't that practical. After all, if you start whipping medicine balls around the average gym, you're liable to bean a dozen or so litigious lawyers. Not so with this program! Chad gives you a simple, realistic program that will kick your ass."
~ BONUS ARTICLE: Dude, Where's Your Calories? -- "There's a right way to eat when you're trying to gain muscle, but it doesn't involve eating enough food to feed Kirstie Alley after she's smoked a bong." OK, that was mean.
~ The Secret and Fitness -- Damn, The Secret is everywhere.
~ Is Your Job Making you Fat? -- "Find out if you've got the 9-to-5 flab."
~ Pregnancy hormone may offer hope for MS patients -- "Scientists intrigued by the fact that multiple sclerosis can slip into remission when women are pregnant said on Tuesday a pregnancy-related hormone may offer great promise for treating the neurological disease."
~ How Women Can Avoid Heart Disease -- "Because women have a harder time dealing with heart disease -- especially once they reach age 60 -- I'm not surprised at all to read about new guidelines issued this week by the American Heart Association."
~ Common Plastics May Increase Your Child's Obesity Risks -- "On the heels of yesterday's warning about the dire effects of bisphenol A on your baby's fertility comes another report that blames endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA on exacerbating your child's risks of obesity." Environmental estrogens are truly evil -- there's more proof all the time.
~ Examining Alternative Medicine -- "Is Complementary and Alternative Medicine Really Complementary, or Just Alternative?"


PSYCHE
~ Yearning is primary emotion after death of a loved one -- "Contrary to traditional notions of grief after the death of a loved one, a new study finds that yearning is felt more powerfully than depression."
~ Bad at math? Worrying makes matters worse -- "Worrying about how you’ll perform on a math test may actually contribute to a lower test score, U.S. researchers said on Saturday."
~ Stressing and Acting Out -- "Long-Term Stress May Affect Young Stars' Psychology -- and Behavior."
~ The mother of all "in other news" posts [Cognitive Daily] -- A collection of news links, many of which are psyche related, but not all.
~ Virtual reality to treat combat trauma -- Links and commentary from Mind Hacks.
~ Remembering To Remember: Prospective Memory [Developing Intelligence] -- "In the middle of the work day, you realize you'll need to stop at a store on your way home from work. Your ability to actually do so, hours later, relies on what some psychologists call "prospective memory." Although prospective memory is clearly important for human intelligence, very little is known about how it works."
~ Stop Energy Vampires -- "Do you feel depleted and tired after a conversation with your coworker or your mother? They could be "energy vampires" - draining your positive energy and time."
~ Physiologic Measurements Suggest Biologic Component To Feelings Of Empathic Connection -- "Empathy is well known to be an important component of the patient-therapist relationship, and a new study has revealed the biology behind how patients and therapists "connect" during a clinical encounter."


CULTURE
~ Dear Kos, Can the Left Stop Shooting Itself in the Foot? -- A note to the Daily Kos from Jim Wallis.
~ Drugmaker stops lobbying efforts for STD shots -- "Merck & Co. is immediately suspending its lobbying campaign to persuade state legislatures to mandate that adolescent girls get the company’s new vaccine against cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance, the company said late Tuesday."
~ Abortion-Rights Opponents Scrutinize Obama Votes On Abortion-Related Measures In Illinois Legislature -- "Abortion-rights opponents in Illinois are criticizing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is running for president in 2008, for votes he made on legislation while serving as a state senator, The Hill reports. Obama in 2001 and 2002 voted "present" or "no" on a package of bills known as the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which did not pass in 2001 and 2002 (Youngman, The Hill, 2/15)."
~ Court rules for Philip Morris on damage award -- "A closely divided Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a $79.5 million punitive damages award won by the widow of a longtime smoker against Philip Morris."
~ Freud Used to Control the Masses -- "You'll want to set aside some free time to watch The Journey of the Self, the acclaimed 2002 BBC documentary by Adam Curtis. This four-part documentary explains the impact of Freud's many theories about the mind that politicians and companies far and wide have mastered over the past century to engineer society's consent and grow mass consumerism throughout the free world."
~ McCain: Rumsfeld "Worst in History" -- "Republican presidential candidate John McCain slammed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for mismanagement of the war on terror in a campaign speech in South Carolina." Finally, McLame gets one right.
~ Britney Spears Enters Rehab -- "Britney Spears entered rehab Tuesday after a bizarre weekend that included shaving her head and getting a new tattoo." All I can say is that I wish her well. She is clearly suffering.
~ Assessing Terry Gilliam -- "What Brazil tells us about torture today" --


HABITATS
~ Study: Yellowstone Air Quality Improves -- "Levels of carbon monoxide and certain particulate at the park's west entrance at West Yellowstone, the most popular winter gate, and Old Faithful, the most popular destination, still are "well below" national ambient air-quality standards and the air quality is good, the study by the National Park Service concluded."
~ More on carbon offsets -- "There's been quite a bit of back and forth here recently about the merits of carbon offsets. Those interested in the subject should check out this new piece in the New York Times. It does an effective job of laying out the major criticisms, specifically around the lack of reliable monitoring and the dubious benefits of tree planting."
~ Living in densely populated areas linked to lower body mass -- "New York City dwellers who reside in densely populated, pedestrian-friendly areas have significantly lower body mass index levels compared to other New Yorkers, according to a new study by the Mailman School of Public Health."
~ WSJ energy blog -- "The Wall Street Journal has just started a blog devoted to energy news, which unlike the rest of its content appears to be free."
~ 90 International Companies Call for Action on Climate Change -- "Immediate action by the world's governments to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases is essential to preserving the environment and the global economy, according to a joint statement released today."
~ AMD Releases New Desktop Processors -- "AMD today introduced desktop processors designed for users seeking the ultimate in energy-conscious or high-performance computing."
~ Carbon taxes vs. emissions trading: politics and other practical problems -- "Charles Komanoff's excellent work on carbon taxes vs. emission trading tends to attract certain frequent objections. This is an attempt to answer some of them."
~ Nanotubes transport gene therapy drug into T-cells known to block HIV from entering cells in vitro -- "A promising approach to gene therapy involves short DNA fragments (interfering RNA) that bind to specific genes and block their "translation" into the corresponding, disease-related protein."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Apollo at Frozen Truth takes on Polyamoury.
~ From ~C4Chaos: Affirmation of Religious Freedom: Save Tibet and Then Some.
~ From 3rd Stage to Fusion -- From Gary at Integral in Seattle. See the comments for my thoughts on this post.
~ The Buddha growing up -- A great post over at Mystery of Existence.
~ From The Zero Boss -- The Birth (and Death) of Heterosexual Bias.
~ Theory of every thing? -- Ed Berge at Open Integral quotes from Mark Edwards article at Integral Review.
~ More on The Secret from Julian at Zaadz: The Mystery: Magic, Myth, Science, and The Secret.


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