Sunday, December 19, 2010 A Class of Their Own  Over the last weeks I've been to two separate memorial services for teachers - in one case also a headmistress - from my years in secondary school. Margaret Gray was a splendid woman who died aged 97, alert and engaged to the end. Fueled by a quiet but powerful personal faith, she worked tirelessly for girls' education, rising to be the headmistress of the voluntarily-aided state grammar which I attended in west London. The second, more informal, celebration was for my teacher. I was 14 when Berenice Goodwin arrived to take over the art room. She would have been in her twenties then. She had grown up wanting to be a dancer, but ended up with not quite the right physique and so had followed her alternative passion, training at the Slade and, like many other women of her generation, finding her way into teaching. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, December 18, 2010 Can Meditation Increase Kindness?  When Richard Davidson told his advisers at Harvard that he planned to study the power of meditation in the 1970s, they winced. But Dr. Davidson would one day find a mentor with a different frame of mind: the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader recently announced plans to donate $50,000 to the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at Madison, a new research lab founded by Davidson that investigates whether meditation can promote compassion and kindness. The center has just started a project to teach meditation skills to fifth graders, focusing on charitable thoughts toward loved ones, strangers, and even enemies. Read More >>
back to top Friday, December 17, 2010 Smiles for the Morning Commute  "If people think I'm crazy, I don't care." Arms spread wide, feet tapping and hips swaying, Erica "Happy Lady" McElrath of St. Louis greets daily commuters on the street corner while rocking to the beat of her headphones. McElrath, who lost her full-time job in January, now spends her days doing what she loves: dancing in the street. "I don't want money. I come out here to make people smile." Her message is simple: do something that you enjoy, no matter what your circumstances. True to her word, McElrath may just be the happiest face on your daily commute. And her bravado recently earned her a job offer as a dancing Statue of Liberty. "Just be happy and do what you love," she says. "The money will come." Read More >>
back to top Thursday, December 16, 2010 Restoring Paradise for Gentle Giants  When Iain Douglas-Hamilton left Tanzania, in East Africa, in 1970 to study at Oxford University in Britain, he left behind "an elephants' paradise". But when he returned in 1972, the country's national parks looked more like a war zone: ivory poaching had endangered these gentle giants. With elephants on the brink of extinction, the soft-spoken conservationist and author knew he had to act. In his efforts, Douglas-Hamilton has dodged bullets and survived plane crashes, droughts, floods, malaria, and even once, being squashed by a rhinoceros! He now lives in Kenya with his wife, Oria, and is the 2010 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, the world's leading award for animal conservation. Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, December 15, 2010 The Economics of Trust  The laws of economics say that people act out of rational and self-serving motives. But what would it say about the self-sacrificing gestures we make for family and friends? On an inquiry into why people invest in their children in 2000, neuroeconomist Paul Zak discovered the hormone oxytocin, a chemical released when petting dogs, nursing children, or cuddling with loved ones. Since then, Zak has conducted a series of studies to conclude that increased oxytocin leads to increased generosity, and feelings of trust, empathy, and overall happiness. His findings also look at the effects of testosterone versus oxytocin in the workplace, and offers solutions like on-site daycare to boost trust- and, therefore, productivity and morale- in public and work settings. Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, December 14, 2010 A Second Look at First Impressions  Why do we admire, envy, or disparage certain social groups and people? Why hire Kurt instead of Kyra? How do students choose study partners? "Within less than a second, using facial features, people make what are called 'spontaneous trait inferences,'" says social psychologist Amy Cuddy. Through investigating perceptions of warmth and competence, Cuddy explains how men and women rise to the top- or fall by the wayside- in school and at work. Her latest research connects poses to the endocrine system, showing the links between stances, gestures, and hormones. And it relates to some surprising findings about how venture capitalists decide where to make their high-risk investments. Read More >>
back to top Monday, December 13, 2010 Four Ways to Respond in an Argument  From your nervous system's point of view, there are a number of ways to respond to an argument. You can find yourself in one of the knee-jerk reactions such as fight, flight, or freeze. You can roar and bite, escape and hide, or freeze like deer in headlights. Or, you can take a breath, and get your nervous system to smile. Neuropsychologist Marsha Lucas reminds us that taking a moment to catch our breaths in the midst of a fight or other stressful situation can rewire our brains to generate compassion and respond in a productive, stress-reducing way. Read More >>
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Of all the gifts that will be exchanged this holiday season, there probably aren't too many that will change someone's life. But a robotics workshop in Seattle has taken the holiday tradition and given it a high-tech twist. When Yoky Matsuoka started getting emails from parents of disabled children asking for help, the neurobiotics pioneer made it her hobby to build devices to assist kids in need. Now, she runs a nonprofit called Yokyworks that asks disabled kids: "If your Santa Claus was an engineer, what would you like for your next Christmas?" Their responses have produced innovations like all-terrain crutches and even a robotic hand that could one day respond to human nerve signals! [ 
Sean McNiff, who's an art therapist, says in his book, Art and Medicine, "The commercial art world is allied with a particular set of economic values, and we make an error when we perceive this context to be the exclusive, or the highest, realm of art." That speaks to something I found it very difficult not to feel hampered by. The market side of art, art as a commodity, kind of rules the experience of many artists. I think every artist has to learn to be able to exist outside of that world in order to be able to continue. Those artists who are able to make it in this commodity atmosphere usually do have strong egos, but a lot of artists have been through some sort of a loss or early difficulty. People, like me, who are in that camp, have to deal with this self-critical part of themselves. So it can be a vehicle for growth, but in the context of the art world, people can be dissuaded and can give up on a process that eventually can be very healing. [ 
In a world that prizes medical science and blames illness on factors such as genes, viruses, bacteria or poor diet, certain perplexing cases stand out. Consider Mr. Wright, a man whose tumors "melted like snowballs on a hot stove" when he was given an experimental drug that he believed would cure his cancer, but was later declared to be worthless by the American Medical Association. His case is just one of several that underscore the idea that the mind matters in sickness and health. In "The Cure Within," Harvard Professor Anne Harrington proposes that we're persuaded not only by science but also by stories, especially a key set of narratives that humans have told about the mind and body through history. These narratives give vocabulary for complex experiences like discontent and hope. "Stories can do things that science can't," she observes. [ 
Catch a rickshaw on the streets of Ahmedabad, and you might be lucky enough to encounter the smiling face of Udaybhai. Enter his vehicle and you are invited to browse an array of books and newspapers. An mp3 player offers a selection of songs, and if you're hungry, you can help yourself to some tasty snacks. On top of all this, your trip has already been paid for by grateful travelers who came before. The gift-economy rickshaw driver explains, "I have no complaints. Whatever I earn at the end of the day, I use it to run my household. But I will continue to treat my guests with respect and make them feel at home." [ 
With 500 million users, Facebook has grown as big as the population of the European Union. With so much potential data, Paul Butler, an intern at Facebook, decided to map out the at least one aspect: the locality of friendship. "I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends," he explains. The result is a stunning map of the world, where rather than marking a coast or river or politcal border, each line signifies a real human relationship. [ 
Makeovers -- for the body and the home -- have become a staple of reality television shows. And now, for a handful of young adults in New York, they are becoming an actual reality. Blissful Bedrooms is a nonprofit organization committed to transforming the bedrooms of young people living with disabilities. They don't have an office, or paid staff, but they do have a website, a Facebook page, and a lengthy ad on Craigslist soliciting volunteers to help with bedroom makeovers. "It was very much a plea to help with a cause," says Cory Mahler, who responded to that Craigslist ad. One weekend Mahler and a Blissful Bedrooms team reached out to Keosha Stukes, a 20-year-old who has cerebral palsy. The results were utterly delightful. [ 
