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People meditate because they want something from it. Most serious meditators I know, the people who made real progress, were miserable.  The two main benefits from meditation might be classified as “capacity” or “exercise” and “insight.”

When I was younger, I could run 10 miles in 50 minutes and not be exhausted afterwards. I can’t do that now because I don’t run regularly.

Some benefits from meditation are like this. Concentration meditation, where you hold your attention on something like your breath or a mantra, or the spot between your brows or a candle is “mind exercise.” The more you do it, with proper technique, the better you get. If you stop doing it you lose the benefits: being more relaxed, more able to focus on anything and more able to ignore stuff like pain and anxiety.

The last Government passed shabbily-drafted pieces of legislation which were only saved by amendments from Labour and the House of Lords, according to two senior Conservative figures

Economists have sometimes misled us with their belief that it is their job to tell “white lies” to scare the population into “behaving themselves.” We think that is the wrong approach. This book trusts you, the reader, with that truth. We trust you to do what you can to spread the truth and to hold […]

Originally published November 26, 20023.

Q: A caller just said she forgot to baste every 10 minutes. I advised her to serve the turkey anyway. Was I correct?

A: Not at all. The turkey is merely the vehicle for the basting. In a recent poll, nine out of ten people would rather sit down at the table and suck on the end of a baster full of buttery juices than gnaw at some dry old wing. Bad call.

Q: I just overheard my coworker advising a home cook to truss the bird. I arrived late at the “Talk Turkey” seminar last week and missed the trussing segment. Can you advise?

Benjamin Crampton, Rupert-Hu Gilman and Rebecca Mari. With climate change set to increase the frequency and intensity of flooding in the UK, it is important to deepen our understanding of the potential microeconomic impacts that may propagate into the macroeconomy. We integrate firm-level corporate records, with Ordnance Survey business-premise address information and publicly available flood … Continue reading Staying afloat: the impact of flooding on UK firms →

Earlier this month, the Israeli Knesset identified a ‘systemic pattern of action’ in Ofer Cassif. The Jewish parliamentarian, who has represented the communist-led coalition Hadash as an MK since 2019, was investigated by the ‘ethics committee’ over his support for South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against the Israeli government, and for referring […]

Here is what Democrats could actually achieve in the months before Trump takes office.

The ancient letters of a Roman soldier reveal the hazards and routines of army life, from signing up all the way to retiring

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

If it’s true that we live in a vast multiverse, then our understanding of identity, morality and even God must be reexamined

- by Emily Qureshi-Hurst

Read at Aeon

Cars are filled with ever more communication and entertainment tech, but our minds are stuck with the same limitations

- by Robert Rosenberger

Read at Psyche

After 250 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.

The post Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears appeared first on The Intercept.

COP29 was far from the dramatic turning point in the fight against catastrophic climate change that the world needs

A damning new report accuses the City regulator of getting too close to the very sector it was set up to protect consumers from

My colleagues and I at Kyoto University met the night before I flew back to Australia this year to discuss the on-going research collaboration, which will define part of my work over the next few years. I hope we can announce a major event in Kyoto or Tokyo in October or November 2025 to disseminate…

THE new footbridge over Boambee Creek has opened to the public in time for the summer holiday season. The footbridge links Sawtell to the southern end of Boambee Beach, but the old structure had reached the end of its serviceable life so a replacement project was begun earlier this year. Advertise with News of The...

The post New Boambee Footbridge now open to the public appeared first on News Of The Area.

by Noam Yuran* I noticed that when people see the title of my new book The Sexual Economy of Capitalism, they automatically assume that it is about the way capitalism shapes our most intimate spheres: how market relations permeate emotions, love life, sexuality and marriage. In fact, the book follows the opposite path. It is […]

I just saw a great video from my old friend Cliff Schechter on his new YouTube channel, Cliff’s Edge. Is It Time to Start FIGHTING Dirty Against Donald Trump? After I watched it, I liked, subscribed and joined the channel as a paying member. I’d like folks to do the same. Then I called Cliff to talk about it. I’ve known Cliff for years and we talked about “fighting” on camera on RW media, and the opportunity for a lefty billionaire to buy a media outlet like CNBC and MSNBC. I hope it happens. If it DOES happen, we need to understand the fear of funders on the left to fighting back and what to do about it. One thing that I’ve seen is that people who consider themselves journalists in the mainstream media don’t see “fighting back” as their job. That’s the job of activists. That’s the job of Democrats. Many see their role as reporting the facts. (Or “documenting the atrocities” as Atrios would say.) I’ve written about what happens to journalists when they do report the facts, do the “both sides” bit, and talk to experts. They get threatened. Accepting death threats IS NOT part of the job!

So, terror bombing appears to have won the Gaza war. Israel’s ground invasion was pathetic, Hezbollah’s troops proved their reputation is deserved,  but Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire.

That’s what Israel needed: that’s a strategic victory. Without Hezbollah missiles and drones hitting Israel, a ton of the pressure is off, especially economic pressure. Now Israel can concentrate on Gaza and Hamas. Without Hezbollah, they’re doomed and the genocide and ethnic cleansing of, at least, Northern Gaza will be successful.

This is why I always felt that Hezbollah, Iran and the Iraq militias needed to put much more pressure on, especially back when the Israeli army was concentrating on Gaza and Hamas still had most of its troops.

There’s a good chance this ceasefire won’t hold, of course, but if it does it’s an Israeli victory. Anyone spinning it any other way is full of shit.

Source - Patreon