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The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:04:53 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks:

"We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace.

We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future

Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us

"Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

You can become mindful at any moment just by paying attention to your immediate experience.

Think of yourself as an eternal witness, and just observe the moment

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

1: To improve your performance, stop thinking about it (unselfconsciousness).

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

2: To avoid worrying about the future, focus on the present (savoring).

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

3: If you want a future with your significant other, inhabit the present (breathe).

4: To make the most of time, lose track of it (flow).

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

5: If something is bothering you, move toward it rather than away from it (acceptance).

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

6: Know that you don't know

Revealing the complexity behind things we take for granted..astonishing forms

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:38:32 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Viewed at extreme magnifications of 1,000 times or more, the natural world acquires a surreal beauty, rich with astonishing forms and spectacular patterns.

A new book, Nano Nature, gives us a rare glimpse into this bizarre 'nano' world. Using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which can view objects at extreme magnification, Nano Nature explores this hidden world, revealing the complexity behind things we take for granted - a butterfly wing, a polar bear's hair or a fruit fly's eye.

The images are produced in monochrome and then hand tinted to enrich their detail.'

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Polar bear hair or loo roll? Shark skin or cheese grater? Welcome to the animal kingdom in extreme close-up

A fruit fly's eyes are made up of many individual 'ommatidia' units, stacked together in a dome, with each functioning as a separate lens, producing multiple images that overlap to create a usable picture. Despite this, however, the fly still only has blurred vision, which is nowhere near as sharp as that of a mammal - more a mosaic interpretation rather than a full 'picture' like a photograph

The tufted fibres of what appear to be a shag-pile carpet is actually the hairy underside of a gecko's foot, covered in half a million tiny hairs which, when pressed against a surface, produce a molecular attraction, allowing the gecko to grip smooth surfaces, even walking upside down on a ceiling. It would take ten times the gecko's body weight to prise the animal off again

curl of a hummingbird hawkmoth's tongue

tiny scales on the skin of a shark

polar bear 'guard' hairs

Count Me In...NOT!

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:58:23 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Please, let's not all rush together

Clip Source: www.starland.com

Rest well, Madelyn Dunham

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:57:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photos of Barack Obama's grandmother.

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

Tags: madelyn dunham, obama

An iron will runs in the family

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:36:15 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Finally we can blame our parents for failing to stand to life's challenges, and for a change, we have science to backup us...

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

THE iron will you need to bounce back and win in sport, or pass exams even when the chips are down, may be largely inherited.

Tenacious winners - such as cyclist Lance Armstrong (pictured), who recovered from testicular cancer and went on to win the Tour de France seven times - are naturally tough, a new study suggests, and it may be difficult to boost people who are not naturally resilient.

Tony Vernon at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, led a questionnaire-based study of 219 pairs of twins which probed the genetic and environmental contributions of four traits associated with mental toughness: control over life, commitment, confidence and the ability to face new challenges.

The analysis found that 52 per cent in the variation of mental toughness was down to genetics

"It's about not letting setbacks destroy you,"

Clough agrees mental toughness is mostly inherited, but says that natural worriers can deal with anxiety by learning to purge negative thoughts.

Tags: behavior, inheritance

Finally

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:05:36 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: No matter who wins the electoral college, the 2008 presidential election will be a historic one, as the nation will send either an African-American or the oldest first-term president to the White House. A McCain win would also mean the first female vice president in the nation's history.

The 2008 presidential election has proved to be the most expensive in history.

Americans are expected to head to the polls in record numbers.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/election.president/index.html?eref=time_us

Clip Source: www.theroot.com

Finally

Whatever the outcome tonight, we are a different country.

Nov. 4, 2008--After the speeches and the debates and polls within the margin of error, after the town halls and the caucus nights and millions of dollars in 30-second ads, after the New Hampshire tears and Rev. Wright and the Palin effect, Americans finally get to vote.

Ordinary people, by the millions, either because they are inspired, angry, excited or distressed will decide who gets to be called the most powerful man in the world.

And whatever the outcome from these past 21 months, whatever we thought of the country

we all feel something a bit different today.

An Obama win will set off celebrations in black households, not just across the country but across the globe.

But the potency of the moment will travel far beyond the precincts of blackness.

his success has been a repudiation of an ugly past and some absolution for our long and sinful racial history. That is an American story. And this is a different America.

Go vote.

Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:12:59 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

it is the apparent change in women’s fidelity that has sparked the most interest among relationship researchers. It is not entirely clear if the historical gap between men and women is real or if women have just been more likely to lie about it

Dr. Fisher notes that infidelity is common across cultures, and that in hunting and gathering societies, there is no evidence that women are any less adulterous than men. The fidelity gap may be explained more by cultural pressures than any real difference in sex drives between men and women. Men with multiple partners typically are viewed as virile, while women are considered promiscuous. And historically, women have been isolated on farms or at home with children, giving them fewer opportunities to be unfaithful.

I see a changing landscape in which the emphasis is less on the sex than it is on the openness and intimacy and the revelation of secrets,” said Dr. Pittman, the author of “Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy”

More voter suppression facts for Citizenbfk

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:28:04 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Swing state Colorado. Before this election, two Republican secretaries of state purged 19.4 percent of the entire voter roll. One in five voters. Pfft!

Swing state New Mexico. One in nine voters in this year's Democratic caucus found their names missing from the state-provided voter registries. And not just any voters. County by county, the number of voters disappeared was in direct proportion to the nonwhite population.

Swing state Indiana. In this year's primary, ten nuns were turned away from the polls because of the state's new voter ID law.

But what isn't cute is this: 566,000 registered voters in that state don't have the ID required to vote.

the very elderly and first-time voters; that is, Obama voters. Twenty-three other states have new, vote-snatching ID requirements.

Funny thing: verification applies only to those who signed up in voter drives (mostly black), but not to voters registering at motor vehicle offices (mostly white).

The Last of the Polls Show Obama Way Ahead.

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:55:21 GMT

clipped by: citizenbfk
clipper's remarks: A major LANDSLIDE VICTORY now looks certain.

270 electoral votes needed to win. Many now predict he will get at least 280 or more. Over 300 would be extra good. Over 340 would be a LANDSLIDE VICTORY.

Things also looking better for Democrats in both the House and Senate, much better than expected and the non-stoppable ruling total of 60 Senators even appears possible.

Folks had been saying McCain's chances were like hoping to draw into an inside straight. Now, though, it looks like he needs a miracle.

Obama continues to campaign on this Election Day, in a firmly held Republican state. He appears determined not just to win but to make gains in many traditional Republican states, "redrawing the electoral map." -- changes that might last for decades.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Polls Show Obama With Clear Advantage

McCain, Hampered by Bush and Economic Crisis, Must Win Virtually Every Close State

Democrat Barack Obama, seeking a history-making victory in a presidential campaign that has captivated the country as few others ever have, maintained a clear advantage over Republican John McCain yesterday as the two made final appeals in battleground states and readied massive get-out-the-vote operations in advance of today's balloting.

Tags: obama, democrats, elections