An outstanding video for anyone who truly cares about the quality of life of poor individuals from around the world. Or, for that matter, about their own quality of life.

Click to view

Originally published at Mudita Journal. Please leave any comments there.

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A new friend asked for my advice about using meditation to treat chronic pain.

I would assume that, like me, you have consulted many doctors and they aren’t able to do much to help. In this case, one of the most powerful therapies is what we might call “radical acceptance.”

The basic premise is that we often don’t realize how much of our suffering ( Read more... )

Since I use meditation as part of my regimen to manage chronic facial pain, this story caught my attention. A key difference, though, is that while I use meditation to manage my body’s reaction to the primary pain - i.e., to reduce the tension and anxiety and subsequent pain - this guy uses meditation to alter the body’s own primary functions: ( Read more... )

A 2006 Harvard Gazette story “Meditation found to increase brain size” begins:

People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t.

Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that ( Read more... )

Tonight I discovered the wonderful jazz-infused performances of classical music by pianist Jacques Loussier. For a taste, listen to his interpretations of Bach, Debussy, and Chopin.

I’m a casual enthusiast of both classical music (especially Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy) and jazz (including David Sanborn, Larry Carlton, Al di Meola, Miles Davis ( Read more... )

Brian Wright offers some insightful reflections after seeing the Atlas Shrugged movie. These pargaraphs caught my attention as particularly noteworthy:

Tonight I find myself clarifying several of the key ideas that Ayn Rand developed that were expressed in the movie. Here are the four key ideas I see in ASM:

1. Innovation and the joy of creation
2. The ( Read more... )

See the article “How to make a nuclear reactor that can’t have a meltdown” for fascinating information about how nuclear power generators can be built - and have been built - that have zero chance of a meltdown, even in the worst case scenario.

This part is particularly relevant to our conversations today about the dangers of nuclear power:

To put ( Read more... )

I just submitted the following question on Peikoff.com.

It’s a question I’ve had for many years, and the answers I’ve gotten from various Objectivist thinkers have varied considerably. It seems like a pretty important question, particularly for a philosophy that aspires to be internally consistent:

Ayn Rand taught that we have no unchosen ( Read more... )

Another outstanding offering from Bill Whittle.

I notice he’s no longer working under the “Fireball” title, which I think is a good call. There was something gimmicky about that, and distracting about the associated visuals.

Click to view

Thanks to Marsh for the link.

Originally published at Mudita Journal. Please leave any comments there.