United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

It seems appropriate in the Summer of 2010 to turn back and reread James Merrill's 1962 poem "Roger Clay's Proposal," which begins by proposing that "With all due ceremony -- flags unfurled, / Choirs, priests -- the leaders of a sobered world / Should meet, kneel down, and, joining hands, submit / To execution," then develops an even more appalling proposal.  --  In 2010, the notion that it could hope for "maximum coverage in the press" seems quaint....

This highly-rated (by viewers) 10:47 video lecture by author Daniel Pink describes recent psychological research showing that except for the simplest mechanical tasks, enhanced performance in organizations is produced not by monetary rewards but by autonomy, mastery, and purpose (at 5:10).[1] ...

Jim Robbins's haikus "Progress through Chemistry"[1] and "Out of the Bottle"[2] were inspired by the Gulf Disaster.  They are published here for the first time. ...

On. Jan. 12, 1996, Bruce Springsteen sang "Youngstown" in a concert performed at the Stambaugh Theatre in Youngstown, Ohio.[1]  --  The performance is extraordinary; viewers have called it "spine-chilling," "probably one of the best songs he ever wrote," "beautiful," "chilling," and again and again commentators say it evokes their fathers' lives....

This half-hour lecture, on what makes humans unique, was delivered as Stanford's Class Day Lecture in 2009 by Professor Robert Sapolsky on Jun. 13, 2009.[1] -- Sapolsky noted that humans can no longer be considered the only tool-making animal, nor the only animal that kills members of its own species (though we are the only animal that kills member of its own species remotely), nor the only animal with a theory of mind (though we are the only animal with a "secondary theory of mind"), nor the only animal with an understanding of something like the Golden Rule (but we are the only animal that understands that there are circumstances when the might have a different understanding of what reciprocity involves), nor the only animal that shows elements of empathy (though we are unique in the range of empathy that we feel), nor the only animal in which dopamine release is involved in mechanisms of anticipation that are boosted by uncertain reward (but we are the only animal that has long lag times between stimulus and reward -- even unto death!), nor the only animal with cultural transmission of styles of behavior (but we are the only animal with our levels of cultural complexity). -- Where humans are truly unique: sexual behavior, complexity of language use, and, as Sapolsky puts it, "gaining the strength and will to do X from the irrefutable evidence that X cannot be," which Sapolsky calls "the most irrational, magnificent thing we are capable of as a species." -- That is, Sapolsky identifies making a moral imperative out of the impossible as the most human trait. -- BACKGROUND: Robert Sapolsky, 52, is a leading primatologist and neurologist and the author of several books, including Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994), The Trouble with Testosterone (1997), Junk Food Monkeys (19997), A Primate's Memoir (2002), and Monkeyluv (2005). -- He is well-known as an expert on stress and a superb teacher....