- ‹ previous
- 191 of 14333
- next ›
Yoga As Medicine by Timothy McCall
The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing
Minneapolis is a long way from India, not just geographically, but climate-wise and culturally also. Many Minneapolitans are interested in health; the city has a strong health care industry, and high percentage active people. Many are also interested in exploring other ways of understanding. I think this may account for the strong interest in yoga in this city.
As someone who’s interested in health and fitness, I’ve been interested in yoga, a popular therapy in India. I’ve taken some yoga classes and training, and I wanted to deepen my study. I learned about a book, Yoga As Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing by Timothy McCall, MD, and bought a copy.
The book is easy to read, and filled with photographs that illustrate the asana, or poses, that are being presented. It gives general information about using various aspects of yoga as an aid to health and healing. Along with general information, the author provides case studies of people who use yoga to manage a number of specific conditions, such as cancer and obesity.
The book is written by a medical doctor, and what I found fascinating is Dr. McCall’s hypotheses on why certain types of yoga, and certain poses, are helpful for specific conditions. The ancient yogis developed their practices through careful observation of how breathing and asana affected the body. Western science is catching up, and at times, is able to explain why those activities aid in healing.
Anyone who teaches yoga may find that this book helps them provide more better instruction to students with health issues. Serious students, whether healthy or not, will likely also find this book fascinating.
NFL Stats & Stuff for Week Nine
Luck keeps hitting jackpot ... Martin is the man ... Bears look bullish ... etc.
Does Andrew Luck have the Colts in playoff contention? Oh, yes he does.
Indianapolis and Miami both came into their AFC contest at 4-3, and both trying to convince doubters that they are legit playoff possibilities.
It was Luck and the Colts that came out on top, with a 23-20 win. Luck went 30-of-48 for 433 yards and 2 TDs with 0 INT. Luck's performance broke the all-time rookie record for yards in a game, set in the ancient year of 2011 by Cam Newton. He had no less than five different receivers with at least five catches, led, of course, by Reggie Wayne with seven.
Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins was no slouch, with 22-of-38 for 290 yards and 1 TD and 0 INT, but Luck's team got the winning field goal with 5:58 left and held on for the win.
Ailing Colts Coach Chuck Pagano, undergoing treatment for cancer, was on hand for the win.
***
Colts fans have to like what they're seeing, even if part of what they are seeing is Peyton Manning in orange. The veteran leads the NFL in passing rating -- familiar territory for him, even if the Rocky Mountains aren't. Manning went 27-of-35 for 291 yards as the Broncos defeated Cincinnati to win their third straight and go 5-3.
Denver has to be a clear favorite now to win the AFC West.
***
Another team trying to make playoff noises is Tampa Bay, which has won two in a row to rise to 4-4. A key part of those wins has been Doug Martin, the rookie out of Boise State.
Martin busted all over Oakland for 251 yards on 25 carries, to raise his rookie season total to 794 yards in eight games.
Martin trails only Adrian Peterson of the Vikings and Marshawn Lynch of the Seahawks in the season rushing totals.
***
Martin is now a single yard ahead of previous rookie sensation Alfred Morris of Washington. Morris and his teammates were a hot pick earlier, after a 3-3 start and flashy performances from fellow rookie Robert Griffin III.
But three straight losses have Washington at 3-6 and looking like unlikley playoff participants.
A fired-up Carolina team broke a five-game losing sreak with a 21-13 win that pushed the Redskins further down the playoff ladder, and led Coach Mike Shanahan to make controversial remarks that some interpreted as throwing in the towel on the season.
The Panthers were upset that Washington had chosen them as the "Homecoming" opponent. Pro teams don't typically have "Homecoming" events, but college teams usually pick a game that is a likely victory, and the Panthers didn't like the implication.
***
Finally, a shout-out to the suddenly formidible-looking Chicago Bears.
Way back before anyone thought of Peyton Manning in Denver, Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall were running up big stats there, before both falling out of favor.
Now they are reunited in Chicago, and they are putting the Bear offense on the map. They helped the Bears ring up 51 points on the Tennessee Titans this week.
Cutler was 19-of-26 for 229 yards and 3 TDs, all of which went to Marshall. For his part, Marshall had a total of nine grabs for 122 yards and those three scores.
The Bears are now 7-1 and looking solid on both sides of the ball.
Pulling At My Heartstrings: Music Soothes The Savage Beast and more cute dumps
Hudson doesn't know much, but he knows he likes music. And he knows how to melt my heart.
More cute attacks after the jump.
This next video is from 2010, and is the second installment of this specific critter, but it is still so so cute. This poor pug just wants to sleep, standing or not.
From the same people who brought you "Iron Baby," comes another well-made short titled, simply, "Dragon Baby."
This next video initially seems pretty simple: puppy vs. doorstop. But somehow it continues to entertain for its entire two minutes proving once and for all: cuteness is everlasting.
I do not have a helpful dog, so the sheer amount of cooperation this next animal shows boggles my mind. Jackson is out through a long list of chores before he is allowed to go play frisbee, and watch how eager he is after each and every step.
We leave you with two adorable critters being good friends to each other. One, the Great Dane Brutus, and the other, the mini-pig, Piggy. Get him, Piggy!
Amazon: Friskies Meaty Bits Cat Food Variety Pack of 24 - $10.96 or less
FREE shipping with Amazon Prime, Subscribe and Save, or orders over $25
While supplies last, Amazon is offering the Friskies Meaty Bits Cat Food Variety Pack of 24 for only $10.96 with free shipping if you spend over $25 or have Amazon Prime.
If you choose Subscribe and Save you get FREE shipping and the price drops down to $10.41
At around 45 cents a can with free delivery this is a pretty good deal.
Also available:
Meow Mix Seafood Medley, 3.15-Pounds (Pack of 3) for only $11.94 ($11.43 with free shipping using subscribe and save) - at around $1.32 per poud this seems liek a good deal, too.
You can cancel subscribe and save as soon as your order ships, with no penalty, and you will not be charged for additional shipments.
Corruption 4 - Regulatory Capture
A major problem with government oversight of the commercial sector is something called regulatory capture. The idea is that a government agency that is supposed to be an independent watchdog for the public interest becomes a lapdog for the industry that it is supposed to regulate. This has probably been a problem for as long as there have been governments and businesses. The nuclear industry is no exception and the huge amount of money invested in construction and operation is motivation enough for the nuclear industry to do its best to turn the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission into a tame and toothless regulator.
The NRC sets standards for procedures, designs and materials used at nuclear power plants. The Browns Ferry plant in Alabama suffered a fire in 1975 that destroyed the electrical wiring for the coolant control system. In 1980, the NRC issued new regulations for fire protection as a result of the Browns Ferry fire. In the face of complaints from the nuclear industry that proven brand name fire barrier materials were too expensive, the NRC approve a series of substandard fire barrier materials over the next 30 years. In 2010, a report was issued by the NRC that claimed that they had finally solved the problem of adequate fire barrier materials but most plants in the US have not complied with the new rules..
When nuclear reactor operators encounter problems at their facilities that could lead to release of radioactivity, they are supposed to report them to the NRC but they often don’t. They may falsify records of equipment and facility tests or they may change their own specifications for what they consider to be safe. Exelon Corporation knew that the pipes that circulate coolant at the Bryon nuclear power plant in Illinois were being corroded and getting thinner and thinner. The pipes should have been replaced but Exelon kept reducing the thickness that was required safe instead. The NRC failed to inspect the pipes for eight years before one of the pipes was broken in a routine cleaning operations in 2007. The NRC also failed to notice that Exelon was repeatedly reducing what it considered to be the safe thickness. In an emergency, these thin pipes could have led to a serious release of radioactivity. When the problem was uncovered, Exelon only got a low level reprimand from the NRC.
Top officials of the NRC are drawn from the nuclear industry and often return to it after their time at the NRC. There are ethical standards that require NRC officials to recuse themselves from decisions that would affect the profits of companies with which they have connections. There have been situations where NRC officials have worked on cases involving companies which they had previously contacted seeking employment when they retired from the NRC. This is a blatant conflict of interest but they are seldom confronted or prosecuted over such lapses.
In Vermont, the state government denied a license extension to the Vermont Yankee reactor which had had a lot of operational problems. The owners of the reactor appealed to the NRC which granted the license extension. A legal battle followed which is still in process. In confrontations with the NRC, reactor operators have been able to get the NRC to back down on regulatory demands. Some of the commissioners who have been appointed to the NRC have strong industry ties and have been vocal proponents of nuclear energy before coming to the NRC.
There is evidence that the situation has been improving and the recent safety record of the nuclear industry has been better than in years past. However, there are still a lot of reasons to be concerned that the NRC has been and continues to be a victim of regulatory capture. With the possibility for horrible disasters from nuclear reactor accidents, this is not acceptable.
James Paxton In Three Words
DO. NOT. TRADE.
.
Bonus three words: "Under any circumstances." Trade Hultzen if you must. Do not trade James Paxton. Much less this "Paxton and two more of your best and brightest for a --- > LF settle." Slap me SILLY and call me shirley. How about Pineda, Seager and Fister for Victorino while you're at the stock exchange.
.
Q. Experts say that the market would be Franklin and Hultzen, or Franklin and Paxton and Erasmo, for Alex Gordon.
A. Once people have SEEN James Paxton throw, they won't want to trade him for anybody.
Where's this coming from, you ax? If guys have seen Paxton throw, and are saying that they'd trade Paxton for Gordon even up, they don't get pitching. I mean it in a good way.......
Would you have traded the rookie Pineda for a .450 SLG'ing Alex Gordon with 3-4 years left at $11M per?
...........
When guys say "I think it would take Paxton, Montero, Wilhelmsen and Wedge to get Chone Figgins" they are giving you their own value judgments. They're not getting it from shot-callers in Seattle.
Anybody interested in what Zduriencik has SAID? What he has SAID is that he's not trading Paxton, period. Having now seen Paxton, from the CF camera at the AFL rising stars, I can't imagine that Zduriencik's position is anything other than that, either.
Think Erik Bedard if Erikkk had CC Sabathia velocity and George Sherrill deception. ... "Paxton and ? and ? for a .455 SLG." ::spits tobacco juice:: Bah humbug.
Anyway. POTD series on Paxton forthcoming. Trade Hultzen if you want. Trade Taijuan if you're getting back Stanton. But do. not. trade. James Paxton.
...........
Alex Gordon has been productive. So had Chone Figgins when we signed him. Both were exceptionally soft-skills WAR heroes, guys who looked good in saber formulas but who, on the field, didn't do a whole lot of scoreboard changing. Alex Gordon has driven in more than 72 RBI, exactly one time. That one time, his career year, he drove in 87. I'll take Mike Carp. ::tongueincheek:: ::kinda::
It's possible that Gordon will go on to a career providing an OBP-based 120, 125 OPS+ in left field with pretty good defense. If he does, and that is a big IF, he'll do it at a club-friendly salary. Good on him.
It's not just my opinion. Ron Shandler rolled his eyes and said "Finally has value, but bid cautiously. Not a legit .300 hitter (140 K's, jjc); running game could be temporary." Alex Gordon is not a dead man but neither is he a legitimate 5-WAR difference-maker.
............
Here's the challenge: Check back with me after you have SEEN IT LIVE, James Paxton throw one ("on") game in Safeco. Let's talk at that time.
Dead bugs
A sight both ugly and pathetic
In one corner of the front stoop of my apartment building they lie in a carpet, these red bugs I wrote about previously which show up each fall drawn to where I live by heaven knows what. Only these are the kind which will stay the winter, because they are dead. Killed by being tromped on I presume because no pest controller has ever come to my place in the decade I have lived here.
Those tiny corpses makes a sight both ugly and pathetic, one I see it each and every time I go in and out there, and, while I have grown blasé to the sight, it still is a gross one to say the least.
But they are not the only ones to be found at my apartment. The chain of the chandelier that lights the front of the common area of my building has a dead fly enshrined on top of it courtesy of some spider lurking in the building. It is such an ugly, disgusting sight I’m tempted to remove it because I see it each time I change the lights in that thing.
In the back part of the common area you can find a few dead red bugs under the back door thanks to human foot traffic that squashed the hapless insects which had got inside thanks to the cloud of them hanging about the back door during the last warm days of September and October.
Such sights give my building a seedy, down-at-the-heel look which just might gross out any future potential tenants should they lay eyes on them. I wouldn’t blame them if it did.
Senate Final: Democrats Hit Their Upside
Harry Reid is smiling, if you didn't notice
In this space before the election, we said the Democratic upside for the U.S. Senate was a gain of two seats. For that to happen the late "Republican breeze" that appeared to be brewing following the first presidential debate had to fade.
Well, the breeze not only hit a crosswind from Hurricane Superstorm Sandy, but it appeared to just die in the water after the storm cleared. There will be endless debates as to whether it was just an illusion all along, whether it was snuffed out by the storm itself, or Gov. Chris Christie's embrace of President Obama in the aftermath, or whether the Romney campaign just failed to capitalize on a favorable position.
Whatever the causes, it is clear that partisan fortunes reverted at the end to their position before the Denver debate. That is: a slight advantage for the Democrats.
That advantage, combined with weak Republican candidates in Missouri and Indiana, and a surprisingly strong candidate in North Dakota, gave the Democrats the "upside" scenario of two more seats in the Senate.
Democrats ended up losing only one of their most threatened seats, and former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp (D) pulled out a narrow victory to hold the North Dakota seat for the party. Next door, Sen. Jon Tester (D) also held on to his seat.
After 2010, it looked as if the long tradition in the upper Great Plains of sending relatively moderate, populist and generally well-liked Democrats to Washington might be gone in the face of increased partisanship. The delegations in the Dakotas, once well-populated with Democrats, become increasingly Republican.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, assuming the trend would continue, retired rather than face reelction, and, in the Cornhusker State alone, it appeared that he was right. Former governor, senator and presidential candidate Bob Kerrey went down in flames to a previously unknown state senator.
But farther north, the strong partisanship of 2010 gave way, and even a proven statewide candidate, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R) of Montana, couldn't upend the incumbent.
In Indiana and Missouri, probable GOP pickups were derailed by weak candidates who started out poorly and actually got worse. Not only that, they may have hurt other candidates around the country as well.
In Arizona, however, one possible Democratic "surprise" failed to materialize, as former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona proved to be a weaker candidate than he once looked.
Across the Rust Belt, GOP hopes faded early in Michigan, later in Ohio, and only at the end in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but, ultimately, there were no Repubican gains except in Nebraska.
In Virginia, Romney appeared to be gaining traction that might have helped former Sen. George Allen (R), but it failed to materialize in the end, and Allen lost for the second consecutive time in the Old Dominion.
Finally, in the Northeast, Sen. Scott Brown (R) ultimately could not withstand the Democratic tide in Massachusetts, and other brief GOP hopes in Maine and Connecticut proved to be fleeting.
Issue yourself a holiday fitness challenge
Choose something that you can actually achieve
The holiday season can be a frightening time for people who are committed to improving or maintaining their fitness. We have very little spare time to spend at the gym when we are scrambling to decorate, shop and celebrate. This is just the time of year though, that we can most benefit from working out to make up for an occasional indulgence in holiday goodies.
So this year, instead of giving in the holiday madness and the traditional weight gain, issue yourself a holiday fitness challenge. Make it realistic; choose something that you can actually achieve, yet make it challenging enough so it can help you stay on track with your goals.
One way to do this type of challenge is to add just a few minutes to a current workout routine. For example, if you usually focus on cardio, when that’s finished, add some kettle bell exercises to help build muscle. Building muscle keeps your metabolism humming along, and fat gain in check. Another option might be to add some activities that can be both social and physical, such as a kick-boxing class with friends once a week.
Keep in mind that what you do outside of the gym also affects your fitness. Try to keep your nutrition on track by focusing on eating fresh and healthy foods whenever possible. Choose a few special holiday treats for indulging, and savor every bite. Keep your stress levels low to reduce cortisol and its impact on weight gain. Get plenty of rest when you can; enough sleep also helps reduce stress and binge-eating.
No excuse for ignorance
Respect is earned.
I'm a bit of an elitist, I'll admit it freely. My version of elite doesn't mean wealthy, privileged or any of those things, not at all. My version has to do with basic intelligence and logical thinking abilities. In fact, it probably has more to do with logic than intelligence alone.
If a person is willing to educate themselves about something and then can logically voice their opinions, while retaining the ability to comprehend the difference between opinion and fact, I find them worthy. No, I may not agree with them, but I can respect them.
If they understand they are ignorant on a subject so they choose to stay quiet or ask for facts (i.e. and education) then they are worthy. If they spout off nonsense from whatever source is seeking to control the most sheep this week, they are a sucker and not worth my time.
Harsh? Yep, it is. Fortunately, I don't really care and I doubt those ignorant enough to not gain my respect care either. Well, except all those teachers in high school that were hell bent that they deserved my respect because they were my elder. Um, no. Sorry, respect doesn't work that way. Everyone earns it, regardless of how many rides around the sun they've been on.
There truly is no excuse for ignorance. If you don't know, say so. It's not ignorant not to know, it's ignorant to blow a load of hot air by pretending to know. (Yes, I understand, I just described 98 percent of the politicians in this country, if not the world. And yes, I don't respect politicians as a general rule.) You know, this applies to me, too. Feel free to look down your nose at me when I am willfully ignorant.
So all those fools that have access to western education and insist the world is flat? Ignorant. Those that insist the world was created as we know it in six days 5,000 years ago? Ignorant. Do you think fluoride is a government mind control device? Then guess what! You're ignorant.
I'm not talking about a lack of education or the inability to get a proper education. I'm talking about those buffoons that have access to the knowledge but choose to ignore it or twist the facts to meet some twisted agenda of theirs. I'm better than them, plain and simple. That's my elitist view and I'm sticking to it - call me ignorant if you will!