Dalai Lama Quote of the Week from Snow Lion Publications.

The ability to look at events from different perspectives can be very helpful. Then, practicing this, one can use certain experiences, certain tragedies, to develop a calmness of mind. One must realize that every phenomenon, every event, has different aspects. Everything is of a relative nature.

...

lt seems that often when problems arise, our outlook becomes narrow. All of our attention may be focused on worrying about the problem, and we may have a sense that we're the only one that is going through such difficulties. This can lead to a kind of self-absorption that can make the problem seem very intense. When this happens, I think that seeing things from a wider perspective can definitely help--realizing, for instance, that there are many other people who have gone through similar experiences, and even worse experiences. This practice of shifting perspective can even be helpful in certain illnesses or when in pain. At the time the pain arises it is of course often very difficult, at that moment, to do formal meditation practices to calm the mind. But if you can make comparisons, view your situation from a different perspective, somehow something happens. If you only look at that one event, then it appears bigger and bigger. If you focus too closely, too intensely, on a problem when it occurs, it appears uncontrollable. But if you compare that event with some other greater event, look at the same problem from a distance, then it appears smaller and less overwhelming.

~ From The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.

An early gratitude post tonight. Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I am going out tonight, for a change, thus the early post.

2) I was about to register for the Zen/IFS retreat at Tassajara today when I realized it wasn't the right thing for me. I sat with the idea for a week or so before deciding, and I'm glad I decided not to do it.

3) Shortly after deciding not to do the Tassajara thing, I received a notice about a retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health: Accessing the Self from Within, which is actually being taught be Dr. Schwartz, the creator of Internal Family Systems. This workshop feels much more in tune with what I am looking for, especially in light of becoming a therapist in the future. Here is the description:

All the esoteric branches of the world's religions teach that there is within us an untarnished essence, a Self from which wisdom, healing, and spiritual energy flow. We rarely experience this Self because it is obscured by subpersonalities. Some of these try to protect us by controlling the external world or getting us to withdraw. Others are lost in the fear, pain, and shame of past traumas. As a result, we try to exile them, locking them away in inner closets. Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) model provides a way to help you access the Self and bring the natural compassion and confidence of that state into your life. People who have used IFS report profound shifts in the feelings and beliefs that previously tormented them, noting that as their lives became more Self-led, they were able to find increased harmony not only within themselves but also with family, community, and planet. Through individual and group exercises, you will have opportunities to directly experience the Self as well as your subpersonalities and learn how to continue this transformative work on your own.

I am a huge fan of this system, so it seems worth the extra expense of traveling all the way to Massachusetts to do this workshop. I'm grateful that this came up when it did.

What are you grateful for today?
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About five years ago, Loren Cordain created a bit of stir when he published The Paleo Diet. The book suggests that while our culture and means of creating food have evolved, our bodies haven't. We are hard-wired to crave certain foods and nutrients that could sustain survival (fat and salt, for example) in a hunter-gatherer society. I highly recommend his book.

But now those foods are ubiquitous, and we are becoming obese because we do not understand what our bodies really need.

U.S. News and World Report has an article up about the new book, Waistland, by Deirdre Barrett. She is basically saying the same thing Cordain said in his book.

The Best Diet: Eat Like Our Ancestors

By Katherine Hobson

Posted 6/29/07

By now, we all know that most of America is fat. But Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist with Cambridge Health Alliance and a professor at Harvard Medical School, says the reasons for this—and how to change it—may come as a surprise. In Waistland, she lays out the science behind the obesity epidemic and shatters some of the myths that she says are standing in the way of really shaping up.

What gave you the idea for the book?

 

I work in a behavioral medical setting, so I'm very interested in what people need to do in a practical sense. The major impetus was that I didn't like what any of the other books out there were saying. There's so much bad advice, even in otherwise solid books.

And one of those pieces of bad advice is that if we just listened to our bodies, we'd naturally crave healthy food?

It's counter to biology. That myth is so persistent because it sounds so good—why wouldn't we be wired with instincts to tell us what's good for us? The problem is that we're wired for a much different environment—for a hunter/gatherer society. Our instincts aren't going to guide us unless we're on the savanna, away from fast food.

You say we're wired to crave nutrients that were "essential but rare," like fat, salt, and sugar. But those things aren't so rare anymore now that we grow and store things instead of hunting them down daily.

Our environment has gone astray. Agriculture is as old as 10,000 years, but even that is a fraction of all human evolution. It was a huge shift to growing things that simply have a lot of calories, in a few acres, that store well. That shifted us toward simple and even more refined carbohydrates.

You also say that contrary to popular belief, our societal ideal of thinness is actually consistent over time—and for a good reason: It's healthiest.

It's comforting to think that if your body isn't ideal now, it would have been in an earlier era. But that's not true. All those E-mails claiming that Miss America has gotten skinnier over the years? It's not true. It's been remarkably consistent, except for a small dip in the 1980s. What all but a handful of [too thin] actresses and models, as well as female athletes, look like is what you'd see in the current hunter/gatherer tribe. They're all at the very slim end of the recommended BMI [body mass index] range. That is what is absolutely the healthiest, if you're achieving that by eating small servings of food and getting exercise. You should focus on healthy habits, not on the absolute weight. That means it's not healthy to achieve thinness by vomiting up meals or taking speed.

 

Read the rest of the interview.

My buddy Tom at Blogmandu mentioned my work with gratitude in his roundup for today -- for which I am grateful. I thought this would be a good opportunity to say little bit about my gratitude practice.

When I began the project more than a year ago, the idea was to test out a practice that the Positive Psychology people were advocating. What I found was that it made me feel less constricted by the problems in my life and more expansive, more thankful for the good things, even when they are trivial.

When I began the daily practice again last month, it was in an effort to get me out of the depression I was suffering. I don't think it was just the gratitude work -- I was doing some other things as well -- but it worked. I have been feeling much better in the last couple of weeks.

One thing Tom didn't mention in his post was a recent study that suggests that daily gratitude doesn't work for everyone -- they suggested once a week. Anything that can help people feel more grateful for what they have is a good thing.

So, I am grateful for this practice and how it has helped me appreciate the good things in my life.

I am also grateful for Diet Coke sweetened with Splenda -- I have been trying to kick my aspartame addiction. It doesn't taste quite right, but it works.

What are you grateful for?
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From the good folks at Medical News Today, some diet tips. I might add an eleventh tip, however, and that would be to get good lean protein in your diet -- in fact, make that the foundation of your diet, adding healthy fats and then whole grains after making sure you get some protein.

Top 10 Diet Tips You Can't Lose Weight Without

Eat a diet full of color

Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and are very low in calories. They help keep you satisfied longer, and are a great snack and can be eaten with every meal.

Eat regular meals

Eating meals throughout the day will help keep your metabolism stable as well as burning calories all day long. When we don't eat for an extended amount of time it actually inhibits calorie burning. Take mom's advice to heart and be sure to have breakfast in the morning! Make sure and eat your 3 meals a day, but also sneak in some healthy snacks to keep your body going!

Give your stomach time to catch up

Many of us grew up being told not to snack before dinner as we would ruin our appetite. In actuality, having snacks can help prevent you from overeating. It takes our bodies 10-15 minutes to realize we've had enough to eat. Because of this delay, it is very easy to eat more than our bodies actually need, leaving us feeling overstuffed. When eating at home watch your portions. When eating out at restaurants share your entrees as they typically serve large portions. Go ahead, spoil your dinner with some snacks.

Eat whole fresh foods

In order for foods to last on our shelves in the grocery store they are filled with preservatives, which in turn deplete the nutrients and vitamins originally found in those foods. When possible, purchase fresh foods and avoid pre-packaged and convenient fast food, as these types of food are typically higher in calories, fat, and sodium.

Get moving

Our bodies were not meant to sit behind a desk all day long. We need daily exercise to benefit our overall health and especially to strengthen all our muscles including our heart. Exercise can also help you sleep better and improve your mood, so whether a high impact workout at the gym or a stroll through the neighborhood, hit the pavement and give yourself the optimal reward.

Treat yourself

We all have those few foods that we know aren't good for us yet we have a hard time avoiding them. When we try to restrict these foods from our diet, we tend to overindulge at some point. Allow yourself a treat from time to time, but remember to keep it within moderation. Try having a few bites of cake as opposed to the whole slice at a special occasion.

Be a detective with food labels

When reading the list of ingredients on packaged foods, if you do not recognize the ingredient or cannot pronounce it, perhaps this isn't something you want to be putting in your body. If you see a product with a laundry list of ingredients, put the item right back on the shelf. Also, make sure when reading labels to review whether calories and fat listed are per serving and not the entire container.

Eat your whole grains

Whole grains are unrefined products that have maintained their nutrients and fiber content, unlike white products that are left with no nutritional value. An additional benefit to eating 100% whole grains, such as breads and pastas, is they help maintain blood sugar levels with less spiking and crashing throughout the day. Whole grains also keep you satisfied longer.

Eat the "right" fat

Fat has gotten a reputation for being bad for us and in many cases this is true, unless we are speaking about healthy fats that our body actually needs. Overeating wrong fats (saturated fats) can lead to those unwanted pounds as well as increase your risk of heart disease. Stick to healthy fat sources that are unsaturated such as olive oil instead of butter or margarine, which contain saturated fat. You can use these for sautéing, baking, lubricating bakeware, and more - be creative!

Beware of liquid calories

Extra calories can add up quickly, for example a 12 ounce can of regular soda can contain 10 teaspoons of sugar! These types of calories will not fill you up, but they will most certainly add weight. Beware of the beverages you drink throughout the day, some of the perceived health drinks have several teaspoons of sugar per serving, which many of us tend to overlook due to tricky naming conventions thought up by slick marketing departments.

Asking Richard Dawkins (the most vocal atheist in science) to review the new book by Michael Behe (the leading advocate of Intelligent Design) is about the most incendiary idea I can imagine. But it does make for some amusing reading -- if you like that sort of thing. From the New York Times:

Inferior Design

By RICHARD DAWKINS

Published: July 1, 2007

I had expected to be as irritated by Michael Behe’s second book as by his first. I had not expected to feel sorry for him. The first — “Darwin’s Black Box” (1996), which purported to make the scientific case for “intelligent design” — was enlivened by a spark of conviction, however misguided. The second is the book of a man who has given up. Trapped along a false path of his own rather unintelligent design, Behe has left himself no escape. Poster boy of creationists everywhere, he has cut himself adrift from the world of real science. And real science, in the shape of his own department of biological sciences at Lehigh University, has publicly disowned him, via a remarkable disclaimer on its Web site: “While we respect Prof. Behe’s right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally and should not be regarded as scientific.” As the Chicago geneticist Jerry Coyne wrote recently, in a devastating review of Behe’s work in The New Republic, it would be hard to find a precedent.

For a while, Behe built a nice little career on being a maverick. His colleagues might have disowned him, but they didn’t receive flattering invitations to speak all over the country and to write for The New York Times. Behe’s name, and not theirs, crackled triumphantly around the memosphere. But things went wrong, especially at the famous 2005 trial where Judge John E. Jones III immortally summed up as “breathtaking inanity” the effort to introduce intelligent design into the school curriculum in Dover, Pa. After his humiliation in court, Behe — the star witness for the creationist side — might have wished to re-establish his scientific credentials and start over. Unfortunately, he had dug himself in too deep. He had to soldier on. “The Edge of Evolution” is the messy result, and it doesn’t make for attractive reading.

We now hear less about “irreducible complexity,” with good reason. In “Darwin’s Black Box,” Behe simply asserted without justification that particular biological structures (like the bacterial flagellum, the tiny propeller by which bacteria swim) needed all their parts to be in place before they would work, and therefore could not have evolved incrementally. This style of argument remains as unconvincing as when Darwin himself anticipated it. It commits the logical error of arguing by default. Two rival theories, A and B, are set up. Theory A explains loads of facts and is supported by mountains of evidence. Theory B has no supporting evidence, nor is any attempt made to find any. Now a single little fact is discovered, which A allegedly can’t explain. Without even asking whether B can explain it, the default conclusion is fallaciously drawn: B must be correct. Incidentally, further research usually reveals that A can explain the phenomenon after all: thus the biologist Kenneth R. Miller (a believing Christian who testified for the other side in the Dover trial) beautifully showed how the bacterial flagellar motor could evolve via known functional intermediates.

Behe correctly dissects the Darwinian theory into three parts: descent with modification, natural selection and mutation. Descent with modification gives him no problems, nor does natural selection. They are “trivial” and “modest” notions, respectively. Do his creationist fans know that Behe accepts as “trivial” the fact that we are African apes, cousins of monkeys, descended from fish?

The crucial passage in “The Edge of Evolution” is this: “By far the most critical aspect of Darwin’s multifaceted theory is the role of random mutation. Almost all of what is novel and important in Darwinian thought is concentrated in this third concept.”

What a bizarre thing to say!

Read the rest of the review.

Today's Daily Om sounds a little simplistic, but this basic idea is the foundation of my gratitude practice. We can choose how we will move through each day. We can be grumpy and irritable, or we can be light and open to whatever the day brings us. Obviously, things will go wrong -- we'll experience some kind of negative emotion -- but that need not be something we use to define our day. We can choose to experience the feeling and let it go, rather than attaching to it and letting it set the tone for the rest of the day. It's important to remember that our natural state is joy, not pain, or anger, or anxiety.

Finding Your Joy
Be Happy Every Single Day

Our lives are rich with potential sources of happiness, but sometimes we become victims of negative thinking because we believe that focusing on all that has gone wrong will provide us with the motivation we need to face the challenges of survival. When we choose to focus on what makes us happy, however, a shift occurs in the fabric of our existence. Finding something to be happy about every single day can help this shift take place. The vantage points from which we view the world are brought into balance, and we can see that being alive truly is a gift to be savored. There is always something we can be happy about—it is simply up to us to identify it.

On one day, we may find happiness in a momentous, life-changing event such as a marriage or the birth of a child. On another day, the happiness we experience may be a product of our appreciation of a particularly well-brewed cup of a tea or the way the sun shines on a leaf. If we discover that we literally cannot call to mind a single joyful element of existence, we should examine the cause of the blockage standing between us and experiencing happiness. Keeping a happiness journal is a wonderful way to catalog the happiness unfolding all around us so that joy has myriad opportunities to manifest itself in our lives. Writing about the emotions we experience while contemplating joy may give us insight into the factors compelling us to resist it.

Happiness may not always come easily into your life. You have likely been conditioned to believe that the proper response to unmet expectations is one of sadness, anger, guilt, or fear. To make joy a fixture in your existence, you must first accept that it is within your power to choose happiness over unhappiness every single day. Then, each time you discover some new source of happiness, the notion that the world is a happy place will find its way more deeply into your heart. On this day, find one thing to be happy about and let it fill your heart.

Quote of the day:

"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why."
~ James Thurber

Image of the day (Tristan Campbell):


BODY
~ 3 Ways to Get Big! -- "No matter how you look at it, despite all the varied bodybuilding techniques, they're each based on one of the 3 different methodologies: Lifting heavy, constant tension, or volume. Christian tells ya' how to incorporate all 3 to build lots o' muscle!"
~ Scientists Discover How Stress Causes Obesity And How Fat Can Be Removed Using A Simple Injection -- "US Scientists have discovered how stress activates weight gain in mice and have also found a way to add and remove fat in targeted areas of the bodies of laboratory animals using simple, non-toxic chemical injections. The research is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.The findings have been described as "stunning" and could revolutionize treatments for weight loss, obesity, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery in humans."
~ Stone Age Diet Good For People With Diabetes Type II -- "If you suffer from Diabetes Type II you might consider following the diet of Stone Age humans, according to scientists from Lund University, Sweden. In a human trial, researchers found the people with type II diabetes who followed an Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) diet for three months managed their carbohydrate consumption much better. Early humans did not consume cereals, dairy products, refined fat or sugar - agricultural products."
~ Study: Over 30 Pct. Report Alcohol Abuse -- "More than 30 percent of American adults have abused alcohol or suffered from alcoholism at some point in their lives, and few have received treatment, according to a new government study. Alcoholics who got treatment first received it, on average, at about age 30 - eight years after they developed dependence on drinking, researchers reported...."
~ Hunger protein links stress, obesity -- "A neurotransmitter that acts as a central controller for appetite also regulates stress-induced obesity in the body's periphery, according to a paper in this month's Nature Medicine."
~ How to Avoid Summer's Health Woes -- "Experts explain strategies for preventing 6 common maladies from ruining your summer fun."
~ Fact or Fiction: Check Your Knowledge of Summer Foods -- "Tips Tell You How Long Mayo Will Last, How To Cook Meat."


PSYCHE
~ The Fight Against Depression Could Be Assisted By Adding Folic Acid To Bread -- "A unique study by researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has confirmed a link between depression and low levels of folate, a vitamin which comes from vegetables.In research published in the July edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the York team led by Dr Simon Gilbody, concluded that there was a link between depression and low folate levels, following a review of 11 previous studies involving 15,315 participants." Or you could just eat your veggies.
~ A Little Love for the Guys: Why Do Girls Get All Crazy Sometimes? -- "You’re sitting there together watching Colbert and you’re poking your girl’s squish like any other day, just ‘cuz. Normally she just pushes your hand away and tells you to stop touching her fat (all two ounces of it) but today, for some reason, touching her indicates that you clearly think she is obese and do not love her or find her attractive. Why else would you be touching her? Obviously you are breaking up with her. Fine, she can do better anyway. What, you’re Mr. Perfect with your gut and receding hairline?"
~ Suicide Attempts Fall After Depression Treatment Begins -- "Suicide attempts dropped among people with depression soon after they started treatment, either with antidepressant drugs or psychotherapy, a study of more than 109,000 patients shows."
~ Rescue Remedy Is An Effective All-Natural Stress, Anxiety Reliever, New Study Shows -- "A just published scientific study conducted by researchers at the University of Miami School of Nursing in conjunction with The Sirkin Creative Living Center (SCLC) has found that Rescue Remedy™, an all-natural remedy created from flower essences, is an effective over-the-counter stress reliever with a comparable effect to traditional pharmaceutical drugs yet without any of the known adverse side effects, including addiction."
~ 16 Practical Tips for Solving Your Problems More Easily -- "I have found a few tips that have helped me solve problems more easily. I seldom use all of the tips for solving one problem and they aren’t arranged in any special order. However, I find doing some of these things early on can really help you solve the problem faster and with less struggle and pain."
~ To Teach Toddlers New Words Turn Off TV -- "Toddlers learn their first words better from people than from Teletubbies, according to new research at Wake Forest University. The study was published in Media Psychology.Children younger than 22 months may be entertained, but they do not learn words from the television program, said Marina Krcmar, associate professor of communication at Wake Forest and author of the study."
~ Am I Normal? -- "A more organic take on human nature is emerging. It sees behavior as a product of distinct personality traits that we all have to a greater or lesser degree. In this new view, we're all just a little bit crazy."
~ Passion Now -- "The minute we realize that we have feelings, and that they don’t ‘have’ us, we are in control of our lives again and can choose how to react to life around us."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America -- and They Have Powerful Friends -- "A recent conference held by American Vision, a radical ministry that toils away to "help Christians build a truly Biblical worldview," displayed the growing organization of the dangerous Reconstructionist movement."
~ On Literature and Politics -- "It’s always been my feeling that the most important literature is that which challenges those “home truths,” and in so doing forces us to step outside the ideology of a particular cultural moment to see what lies beyond those self-imposed boundaries of belief and literary form that the theorist Hans Robert Jauss has termed our 'horizon of expectation.'"
~ Rebutting the claim that same-sex marriage demeans the institution -- "Conservatives have long made the argument that gay marriages will negatively affect straight marriages. In a 1996 congressional debate, Rep. Henry Hyde said the very idea of same-sex marriage "demeaned" his marriage. As if anticipating the more personal question of which of his three marriages would be most demeaned, Hyde jumped up a level of abstraction: "It demeans the institution." He is far from alone in this belief."
~ 10 Things Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Want You to Know -- "How we shop has become a science that’s studied endlessly. “Market researchers have worked for years to come up with ways to make sure shoppers see as many products as possible, because the more they see, the more they buy,” says Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating."
~ The problem with Michael Moore's policy ideas -- "Michael Moore's shtick cracks me up. As entertainment, most of his movies are great fun. In Sicko, though, he goes beyond his usual ranting. After spending the first half of the movie railing against the American health care system, he actually puts forward a policy prescription. Moore thinks the United States should adopt a free, single-payer, national health system like Canada, the United Kingdom, France or Cuba—socialized medicine, in the words of his critics."
~ McCain shakes up campaign after low cash (AP) -- "Republican John McCain reorganized his campaign Monday, cutting staff in every department as he raised just $11.2 million in the last three months and reported an abysmal $2 million cash on hand for his presidential bid."
~ Obama Touts Record Fundraising -- "Presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday resisted the temptation to talk about his whopping $31 million fundraising quarter -- for six minutes."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Marine worm opens new window on early cell development -- "University of Oregon biologists studying a common ocean-dwelling worm have uncovered potentially fundamental insights into the evolutionary origin of genetic mechanisms, which when compromised in humans play a role in many forms of cancer."
~ Death rates will rise because of global warming -- "Global warming will cause more deaths in summer because of higher temperatures but these will not be offset by fewer deaths in milder winters finds an analysis published online ahead of print in Occupational and Environment Medicine."
~ Building buried in Chinese emperor's tomb -- "Chinese archaeologists say a 98-foot high building was buried in the tomb of the country's first Emperor Qinshihuang some 2,000 years ago."
~ McDonald's to power U.K. delivery fleet with its own grease -- "Proving once again that everything's cooler in Europe, McDonald's has announced that it will run all its U.K. delivery vehicles on biodiesel -- from its own greasy grills! The chain will convert the 155-lorry fleet to a mix of 85 percent fry grease and 15 percent rapeseed oil...."
~ Texas Turns Sea Water Fresh -- "The Lonestar state kicks off a massive desalination project."
~ How Can Carbon Trading Save Peatlands and Rainforests? -- "The U.N. is due to report on proposed carbon-trading schemes that would make it more rewarding for countries to preserve their forests rather than cut them down. The report on "Reduced Emissions from Deforestation" (RED) will be presented at a climate change meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in Dec. 2007."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Roundup on July 1, 2007 -- "A picture by Michael, Gratitude, new blogs and the stream from recent days are on the card today of what's fresh and interesting in the buddhoblogosphere."
~ Are the Six Realms of Buddhism Real? -- "I personally do not believe that the six realms are actual "places" that exist outside of ourselves. That being said, I do not know for sure that they do not exist outside ourselves but I'd rather focus on the here and now then what "might" happen. I see these "realms" as states of consciousness being in our present awareness created by the power of our deluded minds."
~ History and Dharma, History and Dharma (2), and History and Dharma (3) -- Check it out -- this is good stuff.
~ Buddhist Geeks 26: Buddhist Geeks Highlights -- "In this episode, the three geeks gather at the urchinTracker ('/outbound/article/www.fallingfruit.tv');">Falling Fruit studio and reminisce about the first six months of Buddhist Geeks. Each discuss their favorite podcasts and posts. They also plug the new hot and sexy urchinTracker ('/outbound/article/www.cafepress.com');">Buddhist Geeks t-shirts. In the next episode the geeks will discuss feedback from the sangha and the future of Buddhist Geeks."
~ Words, Inner Worlds and Longings -- "It is said that every gift or strength that we have is accompanied with a shadow side. Light casts shadows; attributes that serve us can also inhibit us in other ways."
~ Module 3, Big Love Integral -- "Did you know you don't have to be in a relationship to be a Conscious Lover? It's true! By opening your heart to the world and the universe, you invite in conscious love, and with intention, perhaps even a future beloved (I've done this!)"
~ BLOG: What's Happening at Integral Institute? -- "But now it is appropriate that we turn this Integral wild West show over to professional management, and dramatically narrow the number of those types of projects, while deepening the bench on those projects that we are doing, and starting some entirely new projects, but as professionally-run ones from the start."
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) A gym member showed me this cool device for training clients in-home or for when I travel. It's a neat piece of equipment -- a little spendy, but worth the investment.

2) I get to sleep in tomorrow -- no clients until 9 am. Ever since my recent bout with insomnia, I highly value every minute of sleep I can get. Too bad you can never catch up on lost sleep.

3) I have a client that I have known for almost two and half years. I've known him through the birth of his first daughter and his recent marriage to her mother. He's quite a bit younger than me, but he is a good friend. He's a good man, and I am glad that I know him.

What are you grateful for?

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

The Original Flame

Each of us has a switching mechanism in our mind that allows us to move from one state of mind to another in an instant. . . . In fact, the surprising thing is not that we have the ability to switch our mind state, but that we have the ability to maintain a mind state, to continue a thought for more than an instant. Thoughts are constantly falling away, yet somehow we are able to maintain coherent ideas. Moreover, we have the facility to remember, which is a miraculous phenomenon if each and every moment the world is completely new. What is it that is remembering and what is there to remember? The image that the Buddhists use to work with this paradox is the idea of a flame being passed from candle to candle. We cannot say the flame is the same from one candle to the next, yet each is dependent upon the one before it. Not only does this account for the potential transmission of thought but also for memory, because each flame has a quality of the original flame as far back as one wishes to travel.

~ David A. Cooper, Silence, Simplicity, and Solitude

It's going to be 110 degrees here today, 114 tomorrow and 111 on Thursday.


Cold Morning
by Eamon Grennan

Through an accidental crack in the curtain
I can see the eight o'clock light change from
charcoal to a faint gassy blue, inventing things

in the morning that has a thick skin of ice on it
as the water tank has, so nothing flows, all is bone,
telling its tale of how hard the night had to be

for any heart caught out in it, just flesh and blood
no match for the mindless chill that's settled in,
a great stone bird, its wings stretched stiff

from the tip of Letter Hill to the cobbled bay, its gaze
glacial, its hook-and-scrabble claws fast clamped
on every window, its petrifying breath a cage

in which all the warmth we were is shivering.


Copyright © 2002 by Eamon Grennan. Reprinted from Still Life with Waterfall with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

NOTE: An early speedlinking today -- weird schedule at the gym. There will be no speedlinking tomorrow -- I'm taking the holiday off to train clients and eat grilled animal flesh.

Quote of the day:

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language."
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Image of the day:


BODY
~ The Push-Pull Workout -- "It's one of the oldest bodybuilding methods, but it works, big-time. You can train practically every day without beating your body up. TC describes his lasting love affair with Push/Pull Training."
~ Stress Can Make Us Obese - How Can We Stop It From Doing So? -- "New findings published in Nature Medicine online could offer hope to millions of people who have become obese as a result of stress."
~ Food Nutrition Labels a Puzzle? Here's Help -- "If you think you're the only one who gets confused trying to read nutrition labels on food, relax. You've got plenty of company. In a study of educated adults -- 75 percent had at least a high school education -- most had trouble understanding everyday food nutrition labels."
~ Many diets work about the same, U.S. study finds -- "Looking for that perfect diet? Researchers have bad news -- all diets have just about the same result, and none of them are great, U.S. researchers reported on Monday." They're right -- nutrition is a lifestyle.
~ Exercise Grows New Brain Cells -- "Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, a new study on rats finds. The new cells could be the key to why working out relieves depression."


PSYCHE
~ The Psyche Behind Ambition: Driven or a Little Crazy? -- "Learning Why Some People Just Can't Stop Building on Their Dreams."
~ Scientists can erase bad memories -- "Scientists believe they have found a way to dampen down the impact of bad memories in people's brains. A US and Canadian team used a drug called propranolol to target unwanted memories, while leaving others intact."
~ Finding Joy: A Mind-Body-Spirit Guide -- "A Western psychiatrist draws on Eastern traditions to guide us out of depression."
~ Crying lets truth, healing follow -- "The only way to bring people comfort is to demonstrate your willingness to walk inside those tears where the real pain exists. And in doing so, you always will run the risk of being kicked out of a room, a place or a life. But I promise, it's worth the risk."
~ Selection of Antidepressants: Wellbutrin -- bupropion [The Corpus Callosum] -- "Bupropion, then, is unique. For that reason, it deserves particular attention..."
~ Emotional Eating Carnival July 2007 -- Four articles on emotional eating.
~ Your Life Metaphor Matters. Listen to 107 year-old Clara Font -- "Our metaphors help us make sense of the world. Metaphors allow us to understand something as complex as “life” by thinking of it in terms of something we already know like “a gift.” Clara’s “life is a gift” metaphor is all the more impressive to me, considering that her first forty years were marked with tragedy."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Apparition in the Woods -- "The atmosphere of the house is heavy and musty, as if Sibelius’s spirit were still pent up inside. But you get a different feeling when you walk into the forest that abuts one side of the house. The treetops meet in an endless curving canopy. The ground is uncluttered: many paths fork among the trunks."
~ Obama, Poet -- "Harold Bloom, who in fifty-three years of teaching literature at Yale University has had many undergraduate poems pressed hopefully upon him said, when reached by telephone in New Haven last week, that he was not familiar with Obama’s oeuvre. But after studying the poems he said that he was not unimpressed with the young man’s efforts—at least, by the standards established by other would-be bards within the political sphere."
~ White House Won't Rule Out Libby Pardon -- "The White House declined to rule out an eventual pardon for former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But spokesman Tony Snow said, for now, President Bush is satisfied with his decision to commute Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence."
~ Selling Out Sans Guilt -- "Indie rockers are happily hawking corporate fare. Is selling out really such a big deal anymore?"
~ The Notion: MoveOn Puts Impeachment Back on the Table -- "Now influential Democratic activists are pressing Congress to put impeachment back on the table."
~ Assessing Eat, Pray, Love -- "Eat, Pray, Love begins with Gilbert in her early 30s, crying on the floor of a bathroom of a big suburban house because she realizes that she does not want to have a child; she divorces her husband, falls dramatically to pieces, and then travels around the world. Along the way, she finds god in an ashram in India, big plates of pasta in Italy, and triumphs over her severe depression. Doesn't it sound awful? It is not."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ High-performance energy storage -- "North Carolina State University physicists have recently deduced a way to improve high-energy-density capacitors so that they can store up to seven times as much energy per unit volume than the common capacitor."
~ Remotely Controlled Nanomachines -- "Physicists at the University of California at Berkeley have produced images that show how light can control some of the smallest possible machines."
~ Fat kills cancer -- "Researchers in Slovakia have been able to derive mesenchymal stem cells from human adipose, or fat, tissue and engineer them into “suicide genes” that seek out and destroy tumors like tiny homing missiles. This gene therapy approach is a novel way to attack small tumor metastases that evade current detection techniques and treatments...."
~ Today's waste, tomorrow's fuel -- "A Cardiff University research collaboration is working to recycle precious metals from road dusts and vehicle exhausts to create greener energy."
~ Northern Canada Ponds Drying Up -- "Ponds that have provided summertime water in the high arctic for thousands of years are drying up as global warming advances, Canadian researchers say."
~ Narrative Cartography -- "Last week Wired ran two articles about the wonders that have befallen us since the advent (and through the evolution) of Google Earth and Google Maps. A feature by Evan Ratliff explores the exploding population of citizen cartographers."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Meaning -- "While conversing with some friends over the weekend, we got into the topic of meaning. This is one of my old conceptual haunts so its nothing new to me, but trying it out on other people always gives new perspective."
~ Selfdistinguishing action of each new entity -- "Pulses of Emotion: Whitehead’s “Critique of Pure Feeling” -- Actual entities, then, are not primordially located in space and ordered by time. Rather, spatial location and temporal sequence are themselves generated through the becoming of these actual entities. That is to say, an entity composes or creates itself by feeling the other entities that have influenced and informed it; and it feels them as being spatially and temporally distinct from itself."
~ Nature's Law -- "Why goals anyway? Why wait for anything when it is all here right now if we choose - when all the fun is in the process! Why wait? It takes no time at all to step back and inviting that which we already Are to sit in the driving seat instead of playing host to the sad belief system that feels the need to improve or better ourselves, or pay our dues. 'Waiting' is an anathema to the truly creative mind."
~ How to Live in the Moment? – A Scientific Perspective: Part I -- "Both Einstein and spiritual masters have said that time is an illusion. Then isn’t each moment of time an illusion in itself? How is it possible to live in the moment if it is an illusion?"
~ Learning Self Acceptance -- "Lack of self acceptance actually creates a cycle that cements low self esteem. People who suffer low self esteem often feel that people don’t like them. Unfortunately this is only partially true. It’s not the person themselves that isn’t liked; the fact is other people rarely even know who they are. They have never been their true self around other people so they have never had the opportunity to know if they are not as themselves. When people who suffer a lack of self acceptance allow themselves to be themselves, they soon learn that others truly enjoy their company."
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I have to train clients tomorrow, but I don't have anyone until 9 am, so I get to sleep in a bit again.

2) I'm supposed to go to a bar-b-que tomorrow, but I'm not so sure about being anywhere near a grill, let alone outside, on a day projected to be 114 degrees.

3) Today marks exactly two months since my life came undone. I didn't think I would survive the loss of my love, but not only have I survived, I have grown from experience. Never underestimate the power of the soul to find meaning and growth in turmoil.

What are you grateful for?
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AlterNet has a great article on issues of male intimacy and gender roles: Don't Look Gay: Why American Men Are Afraid of Intimacy with Each Other, by John Ibson.

He makes many valid and interesting points. Here is a quote:

At Cal State Fullerton, I teach courses called The American Male and Sexual Orientations in American Culture. In some ways these classes occasionally overlap, as my students and I discuss the differences and the similarities between men who consider themselves gay or bisexual and those who think of themselves as straight. Though of course widely accepted today in the United States, the idea that one’s own identity is grounded in the sex of those whom one desires sexually, that the sex of the object of yearning identifies the yearner, rather than simply defining his desires, is a comparatively recent cultural notion.

But it isn’t a universal way of thinking about human sexuality. Scholars too rarely ask if what we know as “sexual orientation” is a fundamental distinction between human beings, or instead is less significant, perhaps much less significant, than gender distinctions.

My students and I often consider whether various kinds of fuss over sexual orientation actually are indirect ways of addressing more basic issues of gender, the ways that a particular society defines the appropriate behavior of males and of females. We examine the ways that negative stereotypes of gay men, for example, not only stigmatize those males considered gay, but also coerce all men to stay within the boundaries of culturally prescribed “male behavior,” lest they be thought queer. It’s common in our culture for a gay male to be thought “unmanly,” but it’s not inevitable that this equation be in force, or even that sexuality be viewed as a simple question of one or the other, gay or straight, with bisexuality in the middle ground.

Such, however, has been our society’s obsession with sexual orientation -- and with “appropriate” manliness -- that an association with gayness came to include certain occupations, words, gestures, and items of apparel, as well as one male’s willingness to express intimacy with another. The greater the scorn heaped upon gay males, the more that all males have been discouraged from displaying behavior associated with gayness -- with anything resembling intimacy heading the list of taboos.

I wrote about this a little bit, from a different angle (in response to David Deida) over at my Zaadz blog. We need to stop thinking of gay and straight as identities, but rather talk about modes of expression.

Anyway, check out the rest of the article -- it's good.

Earlier today, I watched an episode of The West Wing in which a North Korean pianist wishes to defect. He mentions "han" as his sense of feeling when told that to do so would compromise nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the US. This is one of the citations at Answers.com:

The Television show The West Wing also referenced the trait in Episode 5.4 (entitled "Han"). The episode concludes with the President of the United States realizing his own personal understanding of the esoteric concept: "There is no literal English translation. It's a state of mind. Of soul, really. A sadness. A sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet still there's hope." [emphasis added]

This has been my state of soul for the last two months. It's nice to have a word for it. In Korean, the word has much deeper cultural connotations about suffering and despair, but I like the way President Bartlett phrased it.

Anyway, I like learning new words -- and this one is so fitting to my life.

I'm grateful for the hope that lies hidden in sadness and despair. I still feel the sadness, and maybe I always will if things don't work out in my favor, but I have also rediscovered the hope. What better gift is there?

What are you grateful for?

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Contentment Is Necessary

We could become quite satisfied with ourselves because we are sitting in meditation and are endeavoring to practice the spiritual path. Such satisfaction with ourselves is not the same as contentment. Contentment is necessary, self-satisfaction is detrimental. to be content has to include knowing we are in the right place at the right time to facilitate our own growth. But to be self-satisfied means that we no longer realize the need for growth. All these aspects are important parts of our commitment and make us into one whole being with a one-pointed direction.

~ Ayya Khema, When the Iron Eagle Flies

Quote of the day:

"Someone's boring me. I think it's me."
~ Dylan Thomas

Image of the day (John Craig):



BODY
~ The 9 Keys to Productive Training -- "So you spend maybe 5 or 6 hours a week in the gym. How much of that time is spent snapping towels or playing the soap dish game in the locker room? If you plan just a little and cut out the wasted time, you might actually build a decent physique."
~ How to Stay Slim during Wedding Season -- "Learn how to make smart food choices on special occassions."
~ Green Tea, Fish Oil, and LL Cool J -- "An in-depth interview about bodybuilding nutrition with the guy who helped carve out LL Cool J's Platinum abs. Find out what he thinks is the next big thing in bodybuilding nutrition (you read T-Nation, so you probably already know)."
~ A Little Daily Dark Chocolate Reduces Blood Pressure, New Study -- "A new German study suggests that eating a small amount of dark chocolate every day could lower blood pressure without increasing weight or other health risks.The study is published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)."
~ How to Stop Gaining Weight -- "There are ways to avoid the dreaded "weight creep." Simply by making a few gradual lifestyle changes, you can stop gaining weight and even drop some pounds."
~ It’s not jet lag, it’s ‘altitude sickness’ -- "Many of the effects of long-distance flight may be the result of altitude sickness rather than fatigue or jet lag, experiments carried out by Boeing doctors suggest."


PSYCHE
~ The Happy-Well: Positive Psychology Tips for Living Well and Longer -- "According to Lyubomirsky, et al, while half of our happiness may be the result of a genetic setpoint and 10% probably comes from our life circumstances, 40% is likely the result of our choices. The point? Make good choices now that improve your well-being."
~ 20 Tricks to Nuke a Bad Habit -- "Are you letting bad habits rule your life? I started learning how to change habits a few years ago. Since then I’ve switched to a vegan diet, began exercising every day, started writing new articles every day, began waking up earlier and trying some wacky experiments to improve my life. Here are some ideas I’ve found useful...."
~ Staying Mentally Sharp Takes Brain Work -- "Research is increasingly showing that aging doesn't automatically result in a steady erosion of brain cells. Rather, older adults who work their brains can develop new connections between brain cells. A brain workout using the mind in a wide variety of new and challenging ways can activate cells throughout the brain."
~ Diagnosing Dostoyevsky's epilepsy -- "In Dostoyevsky, neurologists have a rich source of information about epilepsy. Some of this information is first-hand, in the form of the writer's own descriptions of his seizures and symptoms, as related in his various correspondences. There are also numerous second-hand descriptions of Dostoyevsky's condition, provided by his second wife, physicians who treated him, and friends. And, of course, there are the accounts of epileptic characters in his novels, which one can safely assume are based on his own experiences."
~ Dreaming of the dead -- "The New York Times has an eye-opening article on research that has looked at how contents of dreams can be linked to emotional concerns - particularly when they relate to lost loved ones or turbulent life events."
~ Best of the Brain -- "A book called Best of the Brain from Scientific American (ISBN 1932594221) turned up unannounced the other day, and so far, I'm very impressed with it." Links to some online articles.


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ New Mexico's Pot Connection -- "State to Become First to Set Up Medical Marijuana Distribution, Over Fed Objections."
~ Fed Up With War, Some Won't Pay Taxes -- "Some Activists Fed Up With Iraq War Refuse to Pay Taxes, Interest Is Growing."
~ Time for Another New Deal -- "Is America ready for a "new" New Deal? When you put together all the various strands coming out of Democratic politics and liberal think tanks these days, it's pretty clear that plenty of people on the left-of-center side of things sure think so."
~ The Hillary and Bill Show -- "The former First Couple hit the campaign trail together in Iowa to reformat the Clinton brand. And it isn't Bill and Hillary."
~ Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled -- "Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself."
~ Obama wows Iowa transcendental meditators -- "The Maharishi’s transcendental meditators, along with vacationing pilgrims from the East Coast, turned out in large numbers in the town’s traditional green square to hear the Illinois senator deliver his stump speech on the night of July 3 – more people, Fairfield’s sheriff said, than had come out to greet a sitting president."
~ On Literature and Politics, Part II -- "It’s tempting to see the New Criticism as a conservative reaction to the temptations of revolutionary political engagement among American writers early in the Twentieth Century, since this theory promotes a literature that turns its back on the struggles of the moment to engage with a timeless tradition. To make this claim is to argue that the New Criticism and its literary values aren’t simply a response to politics, but are themselves a specific political stance."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Oldest DNA Ever Recovered Suggests Earth Was Warmer -- "Ancient Greenland was green. New Danish research has shown that it was covered in conifer forest and, like southern Sweden today, had a relatively mild climate. Eske Willerslev, a professor at Copenhagen University, has analysed the world`s oldest DNA, preserved under the kilometre-thick icecap. The DNA is likely close to half a million years old, and the research is painting a picture which is overturning all previous assumptions about biological life and the climate in Greenland."
~ Birds take cues from their competitors -- "The idea that animals other than humans can learn from one another and pass on local traditions has long been a matter of debate. Now, a new study reveals that some birds learn not only from each other, but also from their competitors."
~ New light clock concept explains time dilation in special relativity -- "Joseph West, a physicist at Indiana State University, has recently proposed a method for intuitively visualizing and calculating the time dilation effects in special relativity—one of the stranger concepts in modern physics."
~ China Environment Chief Says Pollution Fuelling Unrest -- "Chinese anger with worsening pollution is fuelling increasing protests, the nation's top environmental official said, criticising local governments who he said protected factories turning rivers into "sticky glue"."
~ Wine: Kills Germs on Contact -- "Acids in wine effective at killing plaque, sore throat germs."
~ What's next for the Internet -- "If you think of the World Wide Web as a cloud of largely undifferentiated information, the mission of Radar Networks is to take that cloud and impose order on it via the semantic Web -- moving from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. ... "


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ A "What is Enlightenment" Catastrophe -- "Andrew [Cohen] totally decimates any understanding that there are different approaches to enlightenment. Before you protest, he's basically saying that the only approach is the masculine, that a feminine approach doesn't work, and that women have to drop the feminine in order to become enlightened. He does not ask that men drop the masculine to do the same."
~ History and Dharma (4) -- "So it's states and structures, or structures and states. There are two basic models to take a look at: one was proposed in "Up from Eden" (KW, 1981) relating the average mode to the advanced mode of consciousness. The other is the Wilber-Combs lattice (pic here). First the average/advanced model."
~ The Cult of Digital Narcissism -- "Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture, is a staunch critic of Web 2.0 (aka democratization of media). In his notorius Web 2.0 essay, he said: "If you democratize media, then you end up democratizing talent. The unintended consequence of all this democratization, to misquote Web 2.0 apologist Thomas Friedman, is cultural 'flattening.' No more Hitchcocks, Bonos, or Sebalds. Just the flat noise of opinion--Socrates's nightmare."
~ Fear as kernel -- "I notice that any belief tends to fuel a range of emotions, and these emotions seem to have fear as their kernel."
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Today I am grateful that the first intimations of the monsoon have arrived -- dark skies, heavy winds, lightning and thunder, and teases of rain. The desert smells amazing when it rains. And the monsoon season almost makes summer in the Sonoran Desert bearable.

I'm also grateful for another light day in which I was able to sleep in a bit.

What are you grateful for?
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I found these photos, by Russell Croman, at You Say Too.

Today's Daily Om:

Just Being There
Acting As A Guardian

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to act as their guardian. Whether this gift is related to a specific situation or is representative of an ongoing commitment, we each benefit from the association. To protect someone is to walk with them in challenging times and see them through safely to the other side. In doing this, we grow with them. And those under our guardianship derive confidence from our support and assistance, enabling them to persevere through almost any conditions.

There are many reasons we feel inspired to serve as guardians to those we care for. Sometimes just holding the space for somebody allows them to do what is necessary to grow or heal. We may simply want to see that our friend or loved one is taken care of and equipped to prevail over difficult circumstances. We may also sense that we are in possession of knowledge our loved ones are lacking yet need in their current stage of development. Our offer to serve as a guardian may also be both unsolicited and unrelated to any one situation. Instead of helping someone we care about cope with a specific challenge, we may find ourselves providing them with a more general form of emotional sustenance that prepares and strengthens them for challenges yet to come.

Our ability to empathize with those under our guardianship is our greatest asset because our comprehension of their needs allows us to determine how we can best serve them. Even when this comprehension is limited, however, the loving intentions with which we enter into our role as guardian ensure that our care and protection help others grow as individuals while living their lives with grace.

The caveat should be: As long as the other person is cool with it.

Quote of the day:

"The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good."
~ Bertrand Russell

Image of the day:



BODY
~ Interval Training Techniques Can Be Used By Every Exerciser -- "Athletes train by "stressing and recovering". On one day, they take a hard workout which damages their muscles, on the next day, they feel sore and take easy workouts, and when the soreness goes away, take a hard workout again. They also break down individual workouts into intervals of stress and recovery."
~ Potential Cure For Stress Related Obesity -- "The Director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Professor Herbert Herzog, together with scientists from the US and Slovakia, have shown that neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule the body releases when stressed, can 'unlock' Y2 receptors in the body's fat cells, stimulating the cells to grow in size and number. By blocking those receptors, it may be possible to prevent fat growth, or make fat cells die."
~ Magnesium Deficiency In Older Adults May Contribute To Insomnia, Osteoporosis, Diabetes And Heart Disease -- "According to a recent fact sheet from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), older adults are at increased risk of magnesium deficiency. Factors that contribute to this are decreased Intestinal absorption of magnesium in older people and a greater excretion of it via the kidneys. In addition, the NIH Health and Nutrition Surveys found that older adults have lower dietary intakes of magnesium."
~ Researchers Create Snack Foods With An Extra Dose Of Fiber -- "Trying to get more fiber in your diet? Munching on cookies or tortillas probably doesn't come to mind. But a Kansas State University researcher is experimenting with ways to add fiber to the foods we love without changing what we like about our favorite snacks.Sajid Alavi is an assistant professor of grain science and industry at K-State's College of Agriculture. His expertise is in extrusion processing, which is used to make products from cheese puffs to pet food."
~ Core Strength Help In Sports? Study Shows Weak Correlation -- "How important is core strength to athletic performance? According to an initial study at Indiana State University, not very. In the study, which is the first of its kind, Thomas Nesser, assistant professor of physical education at Indiana State, has found that while there is a correlation between muscle strength in the core of an athlete's body, and their demonstrated strength and power in sports performance, the link is moderate to poor, and inconsistent." I'm not buying this -- core strength has a made a huge difference for me.
~ Diet pill’s icky side effects keep users honest -- "Dieters have been flocking to drugstores to pick up Alli, the first over-the-counter weight-loss pill to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, despite the scary warning: Stray too far from your low-fat diet, you just might poop your pants." This stuff is evil.
~ Don't Get Burned by Heat Stroke -- "Staying cool on hot summer days isn't just comfortable, it could save your life, according to the Pennsylvania Medical Society."
~ Are You Getting Enough Color in Your Diet? -- "Vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber -- the good guys in the food we eat. They make our bodies strong to help us fight disease and slow the natural aging process. So how do you know if you are getting enough of these food superheroes? Think color!" I like red -- meat.
~ Research suggests fitness reduces inflammation -- "Although a number of studies have suggested that regular exercise reduces inflammation - a condition that is predictive of cardiovascular and other diseases, such as diabetes - it is still not clear whether there is a definitive link. And if such a link exists, the nature of the relationship is by no means fully understood."


PSYCHE
~ Dirty talking for the tongue-tied -- "Want to learn how to talk dirty? Or maybe just deal with the shock of what comes out of a lover’s mouth? Sexploration answers your most intimate queries."
~ The Validity Of Cognitive Testing Scores Questioned -- "The validity of tests used to diagnose learning disability, progressive brain disease or impairment from head injury have been questioned by Timothy Salthouse, PhD, a noted cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia. He has demonstrated that giving a test only once is not enough to get a clear picture of a person's mental functioning."
~ Brain's Rapid Response Means That We Learn From Our Mistakes -- "An 'early warning signal' in the brain that helps us to avoid repeating previous mistakes has been identified by Psychologists from the University of Exeter. Published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, their research identifies, for the first time, a mechanism in the brain that reacts in just 0.1 seconds to things that have resulted in us making errors in the past."
~ Stanford Team Finds Hippocampus to Play Important Role in Depression -- "According to a new study at The Stanford University School of Medicine, depression may be triggered by changes in the part of the brain known as the hippocampus."
~ The Ups and Downs of Friendship -- "Friends don't always share the same penchant for fun." And: The Hug Drug -- "Friends are as effective as antidepressants."
~ Does self-help breed helplessness? -- "In search of an answer, Niesslein did what many Americans do when their lives need a few tweaks or an all-out overhaul: She turned to self-help experts. A slew of them, in fact, including personal-finance guru Suze Orman; natural health advocate Dr. Andrew Weil; relationship advisors Drs. Phil McGraw and Laura Schlessinger; and the granddaddy of self-help himself, Dale Carnegie...."
~ Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature -- "Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define precisely. Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, get upset about the influx of immigrants into our country, or go to church, we are, in part, behaving as a human animal with our own unique evolved nature—human nature."
~ Study: Meditators 'surprisingly' alert -- "Meditation produces changes in brain waves associated with being increasingly alert, say an Australian researcher."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Experts: Pills becoming the new pot on campus -- "The prescription drugs allegedly found in Al Gore III's possession Wednesday are favorites among young people, according to drug abuse experts, who say prescription drugs may soon overtake street drugs in popularity."
~ Alleged DC Madam Can Distribute Records -- "Judge Lifts Restraining Order on Alleged DC Madam's Right to Distribute Phone Records."
~ Appeals Court Reinstates Warrantless Wiretapping of Americans -- "Friday, a federal appeals court ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic spying program, saying the plaintiffs had no standing to sue."
~ Will Durst: It's His Government -- "I got your checks and balances right here. Well, right there, under Dick Cheney's foot, holding hands with individual liberties, writhing in their death throes."
~ Bloomberg Could Tie Centrists in Knots -- "When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks at himself in the mirror, what do you suppose he sees? A hard-nosed, no-nonsense businessman? A non-partisan political operator? Perhaps a nuts-and-bolts manager? Kingmaker, spoiler, billionaire? The next president of the United States?"
~ SCOTT HORTON—Impeachment -- "A clear majority favor the impeachment, trial and removal from office of Dick Cheney as Vice President. Americans are equally divided on whether George W. Bush should be impeached, tried and removed from office. It’s interesting. The Republicans made a major pass at Clinton and the media hyped it for a solid seven months with saturation broadcasts. The American public never bought into it, indeed it was dismissive of the idea. Now the media dismisses talk of impeachment of the president and vice president, but the media will have no talk of the matter."
~ Man-Crush vs. Pretty Boy: John Edwards, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson's Leathery Scent -- "The American Prospect has a terrific piece up by J. Goodrich called "The Man-Crush Primary," ruminating on the images of so-called strappingly presidential candidates like Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson versus the more effeminate pretty-boy characterization of John Edwards and, to a lesser extent, Barack Obama, by the media."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Critics attack Bush wildlife record -- "Critics of the Bush administration's policies on wildlife protection say the endangered species list is itself endangered."
~ Italian scientists build atomic laser -- "Italian scientists said they have discovered how to achieve an "atomic laser" envisioned by Albert Einstein in 1925."
~ Mount Everest Ravaged by Warming? -- "The sons of famous climbers say Everest would now be "unrecognizable" to their fathers."
~ Life elsewhere in Solar System could be different from life as we know it -- "The search for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond should include efforts to detect what scientists sometimes refer to as "weird" life -- that is, life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth -- says a new report from the National Research Council."
~ Team builds viruses to combat harmful 'biofilms' -- "In one of the first potential applications of synthetic biology, an emerging field that aims to design and build useful biomolecular systems, researchers from MIT and Boston University are engineering viruses to attack and destroy the surface "biofilms" that harbor harmful bacteria in the body and on industrial and medical devices."
~ Study finds organic tomatoes contain more heart-healthy antioxidants -- "Could organic fruits and veggies be better for you? A study of samples collected over 10 years found that organic tomatoes contained far higher levels of flavonoids -- antioxidants that reduce high blood pressure and have also been linked with reduced rates of some cancers and dementia -- than conventional ... "
~ Mega-corporations sign U.N.-sponsored climate compact -- "More than 150 companies, including Ikea, Unilever, and Coca-Cola, have signed a U.N.-sponsored climate declaration that commits them to setting and reporting on emissions-reduction goals, while asking governments to enact a post-Kyoto, market-based plan. OK, it's a voluntary pact with a touchy-feely name -- "Caring for Climate: The Business Leadership ... "


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Exempla Classica -- "It essentially means the close study and imitation of models as the conventional method of learning. Of course, this implies not just any model; rather, the best models for the most advanced learning. Literally, the term translates as “classic model” or “classic prototype”. I think artists who are interested in great artistry can save themselves significant time and resources by focusing their study on exempla classica alone." This is how I teach poetry writing -- it works.
~ Storing The Broom -- "I don’t care much for rules. I’ll follow them if need be, but I seldom make them up on my own. When I first went to train at a Zen monastery, I was instructed in a fair number of precise procedures, rituals, and behaviors that I was expected to comply with in detailed and exacting ways. The resident monks seemed quite earnest about these rules and were studious in insisting on their implementation."
~ O, Unhappy Philosopher! -- "I’m currently reading a little book by Daniel Nettle on Happiness, which is an illuminating and intriguing read. One thing particularly striking about the book is the way that he compares philosophical approaches to questions of happiness, in particular in the 19th and 20th centuries, with global studies into the levels of happiness that people actually experience, and comes to the conclusion that in general people tend to report that they are happy whilst those gloomy philosophers insist that au contraire, the world is a grim and miserable place."
~ The Coming Dark Age -- "I often say during my presentations that the peer to peer logic of distributed networks, is a way out of the present crisis, a re-integration to a higher level of complexity. The alternative, since infinite material growth systems are untenable, would be a regress to a lower form of complexity, i.e. a dis-organisation of society followed by a stabilisation at a lower level."
~ Roundup on July 6, 2007 -- Lots of good stuff to read from Blogmandu.
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) Two coyotes crossed my path this morning. After ravens and crows, coyotes are my favorite critters -- I guess I have a thing for tricksters.

2) The first real monsoon rains came today. This is the wet season for the desert -- and we need the rain.

3) I finally saw The Fountain tonight. WOW! What a heart-breakingly beautiful film. Aronofsky is one of my favorite directors, and this is easily his best film. Highly recommended.

What are you grateful for?

Two nice quotes in my in-box this morning.

The first one is the Glimpse of the Day. This is a good reminder for me -- I tend to use busyness, even if it is just manufactured busyness, to avoid spending the needed time to look within. Someone I care about also does this -- but she really feels the terror element of looking within.

We are so addicted to looking outside ourselves that we have lost access to our inner being almost completely. We are terrified to look inward, because our culture has given us no idea of what we will find. We may even think that if we do, we will be in danger of madness. This is one of the last and most resourceful ploys of ego to prevent us from discovering our real nature.

So we make our lives so hectic that we eliminate the slightest risk of looking into ourselves. Even the idea of meditation can scare people. When they hear the words egoless or emptiness, they think that experiencing those states will be like being thrown out the door of a spaceship to float forever in a dark, chilling void. Nothing could be further from the truth. But in a world dedicated to distraction, silence and stillness terrify us; we protect ourselves from them with noise and frantic busyness. Looking into the nature of our mind is the last thing we would dare to do.

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The second one is the Daily Dharma from Tricycle. It suggests that if we can look within, and not get distracted by the "monkey mind" of random thoughts and fears, we will discover that peace is our true nature.

Looking At Our Hands

Peace is a natural mind-state in every one of us. Peace has been there since the day we were born and it is going to be there until the day we die. It is our greatest gift; so why do we think we have no peace of mind?

Experiencing peace is like looking at our hands. Usually, we see only the fingers--not the spaces in between. In a similar manner, when we look at the mind, we are aware of the active states, such as our running thoughts and the one-thousand-and-one feelings that are associated with them, but we tend to overlook the intervals of peace between them. if one were to be unhappy or sad every minute of the twenty-four hour day, what would happen to us? I guess we would all be in the mad house!

~ Thynn Thynn, Living Meditation, Living Insight

I don't generally remember my dreams (unless I'm trying to), so this may be the first time I have talked about a dream on this blog. And of course, I only remember a fragment of the dream.

I am with (faceless) other people and we are outside -- the atmosphere is dark, but it is not night. It feels as though we just suddenly appeared in this place, maybe from some other scene or element of the dream I do not remember. On the ground, in the trees -- everywhere -- there are snakes. Big snakes, small snakes, black snakes (a lot of big black snakes), rattlesnakes, colorful snakes -- snakes everywhere. The people with me panic and want to run, but I guide them out through the maze of snakes and no one is bitten.

The snakes seemed not to be interested in us. And I felt no fear of them.

This is all I remember of the dream, but it has been with me for several days now, and it keeps coming back to awareness.

I don't know what any of this means. However, I have been preoccupied with the awareness of ignorance of late, and snakes represent the opposite -- wisdom and knowledge. I have also been musing on the role of vocation in my life (and my ignorance of what that might be), and I think that there may be some connection here.

It was a snake that encouraged Eve to exercise free will and embrace knowledge over ignorance by eating the apple and sharing it with Adam. It is a snake that lies coiled at the base of the spine and can be raised through the chakras by means of meditation to become enlightened. Twin snakes coil around the staff of life to create the caduceus, the symbol of medicine.

Snakes are symbols of transformation, often associated with death because they live both above and below ground. But they also shed their skin, so they can also symbolize transformation and rebirth in the absence of literal death.

Other various symbolisms include pure energy (its wave-like movement), guardians of the springs or waters of spirit (a feminine energy), cycles of nature and time (the Ouroboros), and on and on. Snakes are one of the most widely found symbols among humans and cover a multiplicity of interpretations.

If I recall correctly, Jung felt that serpents in dreams represented some form of conflict between instincts and conscious attitudes or desires. Obviously, the snakes represent the instincts. But this doesn't feel correct to me -- its more than that.

If we look to James Hillman, he doesn't want to pin any specific meaning on the dream image, and in fact, in this quote, he addresses black snakes:

For instance, a black snake comes in a dream, a great big black snake, and you can spend a whole hour with this black snake talking about the devouring mother, talking about anxiety, talking about the repressed sexuality, talking about the natural mind, all those interpretive moves that people make, and what is left, what is vitally important, is what this snake is doing, this crawling huge black snake that’s walking into your life…and the moment you’ve defined the snake, you’ve interpreted it, you’ve lost the snake, you’ve stopped it…The task of analysis is to keep the snake there…

OK, then, so I have a LOT of big black snakes, among thousands of other snakes. We are outdoors, but not in nature, more like on a path or walkway. It's dark, but not night. And for some strange reason, I am the guide who gets everyone to safety.

I like Hillman's approach -- context is more important than content.

In the context of my dream, the snakes may represent instincts, fears, death, rebirth, wisdom, and/or transformation to those who are with me -- and they feel fear. I do not feel the same fear, so I am able to guide them through the situation to safety.

Now, the other people may represent other selves within me, or other people in my life, or some situation I have yet to encounter. The key is that I am (or some part of me is) a guide through the process of confronting these symbolic creatures. So, in this sense, I am viewing this as a dream of "calling," which is related to vocation.

This dream may have something to do with my decision to return to school to become a therapist-- maybe a confirmation that I am on the right path. That's how I am going to hold it for now.

On this supposed luckiest day of the century, these are some things I am grateful for:

1) Sports: Today Venus Williams, the lowest seed ever to win a women's title at Wimbledon, won her fourth title. An amazing accomplishment, considering that many people thought her best days had passed. And last night, the US mens' (rather, boys') U-20 team upset Brazil to win their bracket and move into the round of 16 at the U-20 World Cup. I love the underdog.

2) I did a lot of reading today, instead of working on an editing project, on the role of soul in psychology. My sense is that integral theory is too focused on spirit, to the point of neglecting soul. I'm sitting with a post on this topic that I hope to write soon.

3) I'm dragging my ass out of bed early tomorrow (4 am) to go hiking with my friend, Susan, at Catalina State Park, a place I have never been before. I'm looking forward to the conversation and the landscape.

What are you grateful for today?
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This is cool.

New "wonders of the world" named after online poll

LISBON (Reuters) - The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan and Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer are among the modern-day seven wonders of the world chosen in a poll of 100 million online voters, organizers said on Saturday.

The other four are Peru's Machu Picchu, the mountain settlement that symbolizes the Incan empire, Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India.

The seven winners were announced at a glitzy show at Portugal's Benfica stadium following what is likely to be the biggest ever online poll at www.new7wonders.com.

"Never before in history have so many people participated in a global decision," said actress Hilary Swank at the presentation.

The New 7 Wonders of the World organizers say the contest was a chance to level the global cultural playing field and recognize the achievements of societies outside Europe and the Middle East.

The traditional "seven wonders of the world" all existed more than 2,000 years ago and were all in the Mediterranean region. Only one remains standing today -- the Pyramids of Giza.

If you go to the site, you can view a slide show of the seven new wonders.

Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I had a wonderful walk with my friend Susan this morning at Catalina State Park. Beautiful scenery and delightful company. Here are a couple of pictures:

2) I did some good work on a ghost-writing project. It seems that all those undergrad classes I took in psychology have some use after all.

3) I had some time left over today to read and relax, two of my favorite things to do on a Sunday.

4) As someone mentioned in the comments to yesterday's post, I too am glad to be on this side of the grass, looking down at the daisies instead of looking up at their roots. (Of course, I plan to be cremated, but you get the point.)

What are you grateful for today?
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I've always thought there was something Zen-like about the D'Oh! of Homer.

There's a great profile of America's everyman in the Times UK, in which he comes off looking pretty good for a loser. But what redeems him, according to the profile, is his heart and his capacity for love.

Key quote:

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, once said The Simpsons was “one of the most subtle pieces of propaganda around in the cause of sense, humility and virtue”. Homer is, in spite of everything, a good man.

Homer is good because, above all, he is capable of great love. When the chips are down, he always does the right thing by his children – rejecting an offer of $1m from Mr Burns for a teddy bear of Maggie’s – and by Marge – he is never unfaithful in spite of several opportunities. And it’s not because he fears being found out; it’s because he can’t. What Marge understands and what her sisters don’t is that having all of Homer is far, far better than having half of any ordinary man.

This capacity for love dwarfs his failings. Even God sees this. Homer can’t stand his fundamentalist Christian neighbour, Flanders, and is bored to death by the sermons of the weary Reverend Lovejoy. He also has little time for the Bible – “If the Bible has taught us nothing else,” he tells Lisa, “and it hasn’t, it’s that girls should stick to girls’ sports.” But when God drops in for a chat, he discovers in Homer a surprisingly convincing theology. Basically, this is that life is tough and humans are hopeless but, without making a fuss about it, God is always there as the last safety net. And, when He’s not around, there’s love.

“It is Homer,” writes Mark Pinsky in his book The Gospel According to The Simpsons, “who has the most personal relationship with God.”

Check out the whole profile -- it's interesting.

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Pushing Your Buttons

Nothing ever changes in this world through hating the enemy. Nothing ever changes through aggression and hatred. So if it's pushing your buttons, whether it's Hitler or an abusive parent or an immoral war--Hitler was wrong, a parent who abuses a child is wrong--you have got to keep working with your own negativity, with those feelings that keep coming up inside you. We have also had the experience of seeing wrong being done when there is no confusion and no bewilderment and we just say, Stop it! No buttons have been pushed. It's just wrong, unaccompanied by righteous indignation. When I feel righteous indignation, I know that it has something to do with me. In order to be effective in stopping brutality on this planet you have to work with your own aggressions, with what has been triggered in you, so that you can communicate from the heart with the rapist, the abuser, the murderer.

~ Pema Chödrön, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Vol. III, #1

Quote of the day:

"I don't need a baby growing inside me for nine months. For one thing, there's morning sickness. If I'm going to feel nauseous and achy when I wake up, I want to acheive that state the old fashioned way: getting good and drunk the night before."
~ Ellen DeGeneres

Image of the day (John Craig):


BODY
~ Stimulate More Muscle Growth -- "If you understand your opponent, you can manipulate him and win the battle. Similarly, if you understand why weight lifting builds muscles, you can control those babies and make them do your bidding. Muscle Master Christian tells you how."
~ Diabetes Control or Prevention: Strength Training, Protein Benefits -- "A study from Purdue University shows that lifting weights and eating extra protein can help to prevent or control diabetes, while enlarging muscles at the same time (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2007)."
~ What to look for in protein powder -- Good tips.
~ What's your calorie IQ -- "Keeping track of calories is critical to successful weight loss. Are you a calorie-counting ace? Put your skills to the test by guessing which item in each of the following groups has the least calories."
~ You Share Your Body with 90 Trillion Roommates -- "And just like your real roommate, they don’t pay rent (but they do at least clean up the place). Your body is a veritable planet, housing some 90 trillion roommates, mostly microbes." Ain't nature cool?
~ Some Simple Advices about Diet to Fight Rheumatism and Chronic Inflammation -- "Inflammation is a major component in most Rheumatic pain conditions or rheumatic diseases, therefore it is advisable to eat a good amount of food that reduces inflammation and reduce the consumption of food that contains inflammatory agents. Here are some simple dietary advices that may help reduce rheumatic conditions...."
~ Pumpkin Extract May Help Treat Type 1 Diabetes -- "Pumpkin extract may help protect insulin-making pancreatic cells from type 1 diabetes, according to Chinese lab tests on rats."
~ Tinkering With Humans -- " In The Case Against Perfection, Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel worries that steroids, growth hormones, genetic engineering and other enhancements 'pose a threat to human dignity' and 'diminish our humanity.'..."


PSYCHE
~ Chronic insomnia linked to depression, anxiety -- "For some people, chronic insomnia may be a sign of broader mental health problems like depression and anxiety, according to a new study."
~ Pain Distracts The Brain -- "Anybody who has tried to concentrate on work while suffering a headache knows that pain compellingly commands attention -- which is how evolution helped ensure survival in a painful world. Now, researchers have pinpointed the brain region responsible for pain's ability to affect cognitive processing."
~ Eldest Children are Smarter: A Study in Effect Sizes -- "The story about two weeks ago that eldest children have a significantly higher IQ was really big news, but I didn't have time to talk about it then. Now, that I have had time to look at the articles about it, I think that some statement about what the word "significant" means is in order."
~ The Happiness of Beating Bulimia For Good -- "In the MAPP program at Penn, we studied “hope theory,” which was devised by C.R. Snyder, and it elegantly explains why hope is so essential to well-being, and now I understand why it was also the linchpin of my recovery. When people are hopeful, they have goal-oriented, pathways thinking that allows them to persist longer as they work at achieving their goals. Hope also allows people to believe in themselves, and to think more creatively about how to get around obstacles, stay focused, and make better choices when self-regulation is low."
~ Domestic Goddesses [Neurontic] -- "Having been raised in California - birthplace of est, vegan bacon, and aerobics - I grew up thinking of life less as an "adventure" than as a relentless self-improvement campaign. Oh, don't get me wrong, I got more than my fair share of personal affirmation at home, but no matter how special my parents insisted I was, the prevailing message of the culture around me was that with a little work I could be "specialer"--or at the very least skinnier, healthier, and more well-adjusted." The article isn't really about this quote, but it leads into the main points.
~ A new method for imaging whole-brain structural networks -- "The high-order brain functions underlying complex patterns of human behaviour are poorly understood, not least because of the enormous number of neural computations involved. Complex behaviours require the parallel and integrated activity of hundreds (or even thousands) of discrete brain modules, each consisting of thousands of neurons."
~ Journaling -- "Journaling is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to accelerate your personal development. By getting your thoughts out of your head and putting them down in writing, you gain insights you’d otherwise never see."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Bush Denies Congress Access to Aides -- "Bush Invokes Executive Privilege to Deny Congress Testimony From Former White House Aides."
~ A Question Of Hell -- "One Minister Questions Its Existence." Probably more than one.
~ The Death of the Novel (again) -- "Freeman’s point has been made before: readership for all forms of literature is falling in America, and the novel has been replaced as the topic of even literate conversation by the rise of well-written serial television. (I remember the same claim being made during my childhood about less well-written television, but never mind.) And in the end, it’s not Tony who killed the novel, according to Freeman; it’s the decline of public education, the language of advertising, and the visual tyranny of the screen (television, internet, Blackberry), which has taught our eyes “to scan, and to receive, and less and less to read.” Watching The Sopranos requires no acts of reading, only weary appreciation...."
~ Deb Price: Americans Continue Love Affair With Marriage -- "Marriage will keep winning popularity contests because adaptability is one of its most enduring traits."
~ Sheehan Considers Challenge to Pelosi -- "Cindy Sheehan said she will run as an independent against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 if Pelosi does not file articles of impeachment against Bush by July 23." Uh, yeah. . . .
~ 50 Best Websites 2007 -- Our 2007 picks for the best of what's new and exciting on the Web today - sites with exceptional style and smarts that offer new ways to enrich the on- and off-line experience."
~ An Open Letter to High-School Students: Pay Attention to Government -- "To every high-school student in this country between the ages of 15 and 18, this letter is to you. If there is ever something that you should take the time to learn about, it is government."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Toxin Levels Of Great Lakes Fish Getting Worse -- "Levels of PCBs, methyl mercury and dioxins in many Great Lakes fish, such as salmon, rainbow trout, walleye, pike and lake trout are too high for human consumption, according to a new report called Up to the Gills: Pollution in Great Lakes Fish, by Environmental Defence, a Canadian conservation group. Despite some falls in contamination levels in certain parts of the Great Lakes, the report states that serious problems still exist and seems to be getting worse."
~ Neutral evolution has helped shape our genome -- "Johns Hopkins researchers have added to the growing mound of evidence that many of the genetic bits and pieces that drive evolutionary changes do not confer any advantages or disadvantages to humans or other animals."
~ Parched Everglades Need More Than Rain -- "An unprecendented drought in Florida is making a bigger problem worse."
~ Monbiot: We can provide all or most of our electricity from renewable sources -- "In his July 3 column, George Monbiot reminds us of how much worse the threat of global warming may be than the consensus IPCC position. But he also reminds us that there are reasons for optimism too. He cites three studies that point to the fact that there is every reason to believe Europe and the UK can supply between 80 percent and 100 percent of electricity needs completely sun, wind, water, wave, tide, and minor amounts of biomass and geothermal energy, V2G Vanadium flow batteries, and pumped storage."
~ With fans and fanfare, Boeing unveils new fuel-efficient aircraft -- "Yesterday, Boeing unveiled a new fuel-efficient airplane to a crowd of more than 15,000 workers and onlookers, as tens of thousands more watched by satellite. The 787 Dreamliner -- nicknamed the "greenliner" -- boasts a body that's half carbon-fiber composite; because the material is lighter than the traditional aluminum...."
~ Bicycling Gains Popularity Even in the Bike-Crazy Netherlands -- "The distance the average Dutch person bicycles every day has increased by nearly 10 percent in the past five years, the country's Central Bureau for Statistics said Monday -- remarkable in a nation already renowned for its love of two-wheeled transport."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ History and Dharma (5) -- "The example of Meister Eckhart (and Giordano Bruno etc.) perfectly illustrates how adequate (read: favorable) conditions in all four quadrants are necessary for growing in structures (even when, or especially when, you are awake in all states). And now, let's have a look at the W-C-Lattice."
~ History and Dharma (6) -- "Alright, is "adopting the conceptual referents of Lankavatara or Avatamsaka sutra into a green altitude mindset" a problem in itself? Oh, yes! Frankly, it's quite a problem, since you're actually down-adopting some post-turquoise reports of a nondual insight into a tier-blind (i.e. green) structure, plus without that 1st person insight, so the problem is twofold - at least - and it requires a twofold solution."
~ Who Are We? -- "Anyway, here we go, today, Monday, and the question is: Who are we? It’s the question Michael Moore comes to, after ninety minutes or so spent examining the American health care system—and finding it lacking."
~ Buddhist Geeks 27: Are you Stalking Us?! -- "In this episode, the three geeks process listener feedback about podcasts and blog posts. They also discuss the future of podcasts on Buddhist Geeks and creating more dynamic conversations."
~ What It’s Like To (Almost) Go Crazy -- "I recognize that I have been purposely obscure in my writing these past few months. I think that’s why I had that dream recently where my “anima figure” asked me for “advice about going crazy.” It’s a directive from my subconscious to share what I have learned from doing (or almost doing) just that."
~ Cohen on Spiritual Inquiry -- "A really profound (in my estimation) article by Andrew Cohen on the nature of and reason for spiritual inquiry in the 21st century context. Extra credit: On the question of Cohen's relationship to the Feminine path, (see here), it is true he is a Masculine-only teacher. At least he is now--that's Cohen 3.0. Cohen 1.0 actually expressed deeply Feminine characteristics."
~ Many forms of love -- "A quick exploration of forms of love, which can be put into three general categories: the love of existence, selfless love, and possessive love."
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