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POPSCultivating gratitude- interview Prof. Robert Emmons studies gratitude for a living as Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and is Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology. He has just published Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, an interdisciplinary book that provides a research-based synthesis of the topic as well as practical suggestions.
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POPSMark Twain's "The War Prayer" In 1904, disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short anti-war prose poem called "The War Prayer." His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously: None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth. "The War Prayer" was eventually published after World War I, when its message was more in tune with the times. Now, Washington Monthly's publisher, Markos Kounalakis, who was affected by Twain's words when he covered the war in Yugoslavia in the early 90s, has made "The War Prayer" into a short video for release this Memorial Day weekend. It features stunning illustrations by Akis Dimitrakopoulos and is narrated by Peter Coyote, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Erik Bauersfeld. *
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POPSChess Got More Info Than Torture - Steak Dinners Helped Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army's Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "I feel like the military is using us to say, 'We did spooky stuff then, so it's okay to do it now,' " said Arno Mayer, 81, a professor of European history at Princeton University.
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POPSYou're Never Too Old For Sex...or STDs! 
"However, Dr. Hutcherson says that's a fallacy. Patients often are too shy to ask their doctors difficult sexual questions -- so doctors need to ask them directly, she says. "I say, 'How's your sex life?' and then wait for the answer. And that normalizes and makes it much easier for an older woman to say, 'Well, there are some issues that I want to talk to you about.'" Author of "What Your Mother Never Told You About S-e-x" and a columnist who writes for Essence and Glamour magazines, Dr. Hutcherson is blunt about asking her patients if they're practicing safe sex. It could save their lives. Statistics show that although the highest number of new HIV cases is in people in their thirties and forties, there are now more patients being diagnosed in their fifties than in their twenties. 'Sex Is Life-Long' So, once they're practicing safe sex, Dr. Hutcherson says it's time to make sure they're having enjoyable sex. "Sex is life-long," she says. "You should never give up on somethin
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POPSIntergenerational School: Empowers Elderly to Stay Active
K-6th school in Cleveland welcomes volunteers in their 80s & 90s, some with Alzheimer's or dementia. The founders believe volunteering gives the elderly a sense of purpose and happiness, as well as many health benefits. TIS fosters an educational community of excellence that provides experiences and skills for life-long learning and spirited citizenship for learners of all ages. TIS encourages communities to create new environments that empower learners of all ages, as they become life-long contributors to a society. TIS incorporates community volunteers into the life of the school. Volunteers perform a variety of tasks from painting and setting up classrooms to mentoring young readers and writers. TIS is a free public school. Founder of TIF, Peter Whitehouse, believes when some people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's, they feel shame and withdraw themselves from society, so engagement is necessary for older people who have aging-associated cognitive challenges.
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POPSDeath In The Family "Yet the proposed law in Washington wouldn’t go far enough for Gardner. It wouldn’t include him. Parkinson’s isn’t terminal. The disease can leave the body trembling, contorted, rigid; it can rob the memory and muffle the voice; it can leave a person still and silent; but it doesn’t offer an end to its torture; it doesn’t kill. Gardner wants a law that would permit lethal prescriptions for people whose suffering is unbearable, a standard that can seem no standard at all; a standard that prevails in the Netherlands, the Western nation that has been boldest about legalizing aid in dying; a standard that elevates subjective experience over objective appraisal and that could engage the government and the medical profession in the administration of widespread suicide. What is unbearable? What level of acute or chronic physical pain would qualify? What degree of disability? Would physicians be writing suicide prescriptions for the depressed?"
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POPSMeet the Godfather of Fitness Apparently his birthday stunts are out of this world. On his 70th birthday he towed 70 boats carrying 70 people while swimming handcuffed and shackled.
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POPSLexicographical Longing in the Dictionary of Sailors’ Slang.) Before the cooling in the ’90s of America’s passion for colossal encyclopedia sets (bought from door-to-door salesmen), and well before the advent of massless Wikipedia.org and Dictionary.com, the navy blue compact O.E.D. was part of the standard décor of a bookish middle-class life. I was overjoyed to have one of my own. Furthermore, my other totemic college books — “Speculum of the Other Woman,” “Reading Black, Reading Feminist” and “Sexuality in the Field of Vision” — could go out of style, maybe; the O.E.D. was forever. Wasn’t it? No.
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POPSDoes your seafood glow in the dark? Reports of glowing shrimp and fish from Seattle. An investigative reporter from the P-I finds that the most likely investigation is contamination by harmless photoluminescent bacteria.
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POPS"White Guilt" Politics of Obama Crowd Undermined and then morphed that into the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) which earned him an invitation to sip tea with Chinese stalinists in Beijing in 1977. The Chinese were the originators of the idea that the rural third world south was being exploited by the urban developed world north. Klonsky fondly reminisced about his authoritarian left activities here in November 2007 stopping only to "repent" for his sectarianism while celebrating that he is now back together with former SDS comrades in "one movement." Now Klonsky blogs for the Obama campaign website on education policy and "social justice teaching." How is it under that bus, Comrade Klonsky? Mike Klonsky, former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers' longtime comrade-in-arms from their days in SDS to the Chicago School Wars they fought in the 80s and 90s alongside Barack Obama, and presto he's gone. http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-is-it-under-that-bus-comrade.html
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POPSTime for a Change? Obviously, the comparison to the Prohibition Era is called for here. That same mindset is underlying this War on Drugs. This "war" is a fiction. Overuse of recreational drugs is a medical problem, not a legal problem. And underlying the whole concept is the religious based idea of denial of pleasure in this world. I'm afraid this problem will be with us for some time to come.
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POPSIsraeli boycott? I disagree with Amal A.that the British boycott of Israeli academics is justified. I think she does have a point that Israel's actions have inflicted much more harm on Palestinian universities than the British boycott will inflict on Israeli academics. (I doubt that many British academics who would be in a position to collaborate with Israeli academics in the first place are willing to adhere to this ridiculous boycott).
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POPSOsama Bin Laden Suspect 'We Can't Kick Out' Is Freed U was arrested trying to fly out to Saudi Arabia on false passports and was due to be extradited to America before US prosecutors dropped the case. Judges at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission have ruled there were "credible grounds" for believing MI5's claims. The conditions are being kept top secret but MI5 and police successfully argued he should not be allowed to live in London. The town in which he lives and any details which could lead to him being identified are also being kept secret. U will have to wear an electronic tag and is banned from using the internet or a mobile phone after refusing to turn his back on extremism.
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POPSYankees making a mistake with Roger Clemens So the Yankees, desperate to somehow save their season have signed Roger Clemens to a massive contract to pitch the rest of this year. That alone, in my opinion, was a mistake. But the thing that really bothers me about it is that he doesn't have to be with the team on day's he's not pitching. Making this exception for one player is a really bad idea in my opinion. The most underrated aspect of team sports is chemistry. So many teams are relatively evenly matched when it comes to talent, that it comes down to a bit of luck and team chemistry to make the difference. The great Yankeee teams of the late 90s had that. In recent years they have totally gotten away from that. This agreement with Clemens totally epitomizes that.
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POPS60th anniversary: BERLIN Blockade / Airlift Something BIG that Americans really could be proud of ... if only. It is ironic now that the great BLOCKADE BUSTERS of 1948 are now the principles in the implementation of a similar BLOCKADE of Gaza, supporting THE fascist Zionist power! Now Russia is a reluctant co-conspirator with the US, the EU and UN party to this pending atrocity against the democratically elected power.
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