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Consumer Guide To Obama's Plan For Canceled Health Policies

President Obama laid out a plan Thursday to allow people who received insurance cancellation notices to keep their coverage, at least for a while.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama laid out a plan Thursday to allow people who received insurance cancellation notices to keep their coverage, at least for a while.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama's pledge to Americans that they could keep their health plans if they liked them began to backfire last month.

Insurers sent cancellation letters to hundreds of thousands of customers holding individual and family policies. Their plans wouldn't comply with the law come Jan. 1.

Bill Clinton even called on his fellow Democrat to honor his promise.

Now Obama has apologized. And on Thursday he offered what he called "an idea that will help" fix the problem, allowing insurers to renew existing plans even if they don't include the full menu of health law benefits.

But will insurers follow through? And even if they want to, will state regulators let them? Here are some questions and answers about the Obama course change.

What did Obama propose exactly?

He's allowing insurers to extend existing plans for one more year for current customers. Policies renewing before the end of this year would last until late 2014. Policies that expire in 2014 would be permitted to extend into 2015. In many cases the existing plans have been less expensive than policies with more benefits scheduled to take effect next year.

If carriers do renew, they must disclose where the benefits of the existing plan fall short of those benefits required by the Affordable Care Act. It's possible the insurers will charge more for these renewed policies.

Who is affected?

The proposed change affects only individuals and families buying plans directly from insurers and who received cancellation notices in recent weeks. The administration is also allowing extension of small-employer plans that didn't meet ACA requirements.

Consumers covered by Medicaid, Medicare or large employers are unaffected.

What should I do if I got a cancellation notice?

Check with the insurer to see if it will be renewing canceled policies. Even if it is, you should review alternatives offered in the health law's online marketplaces to see if they offer better coverage. That's especially true if you have a chronic illness.

Insurance sold through the marketplaces also comes with substantial government subsidies for those who qualify. By contrast, the noncompliant plans the administration is allowing to be stretched into next year aren't eligible for subsidies.

Who decides whether I can renew a policy slated for cancellation?

Insurers and state regulators. Neither Obama nor the federal Department of Health and Human Services can force extension of the plans.

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said he would not allow insurers to extend the policies "in the interest of keeping the consumer protections we have enacted."

How have insurers reacted?

Many wanted to learn more about Obama's offer. BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, which was canceling about 200,000 individual policies at end of the year, said it was interested in the option but not ready to commit.

Florida Blue says it will allow customers to renew 2013 policies, a decision that could affect as many as 300,000 people over the next year and immediately affects 40,000 people who were losing their existing plan at end of this year.

Some insurers are urging state regulators to disallow the extensions. In California, the state should "stay the course and transition people into more comprehensive policies," said Patrick Johnston, CEO of the California Association of Health Plans.

A group of insurance executives was reportedly set to meet Friday with the president at the White House.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/15/245421224/consumer-guide-to-obamas-plan-for-canceled-health-policies?ft=1&f=1001
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AP PHOTOS: High death toll feared in typhoon

AAA  Nov. 9, 2013 10:21 PM ET
AP PHOTOS: High death toll feared in typhoon
By The Associated Press  By The Associated Press

A resident walks by toppled trees and electric posts after powerful Typhoon Haiyan slammed into Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A resident walks by toppled trees and electric posts after powerful Typhoon Haiyan slammed into Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Bodies wrapped in blankets are placed inside a damaged chapel Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, a day after powerful Typhoon Haiyan slammed Tacloban city, in Leyte province, central Philippines. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

The airport devastated by powerful Typhoon Haiyan that slammed into Tacloban city, Leyte province, Philippines is seen on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents walk by debris after powerful Typhoon Haiyan slammed into Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Workers assess the damage of Tacloban Airport following a powerful typhoon that hit Tacloban city, in Leyte province, central Philippines Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a "very high number of fatalities." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

A day after one of the strongest typhoons on record slammed into the Philippines, horrified residents say storm surges were as high as trees and the central city of Tacloban is in ruins. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone "could go up to 10,000." Tacloban is the Leyte provincial capital of 200,000 people and the biggest city on Leyte Island. About 300-400 bodies have already been recovered, Lim said. A mass burial was planned Sunday in Palo town near Tacloban.

Here's a gallery of images from the Philippines.

___

AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

Associated Press Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-11-09-Philippines-Typhoon-Photo%20Gallery/id-b86969b7b5864d7986cbf58ed6cbd1e0
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MacBreak Weekly 376: Now With More Angstroms

Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and I talk about the just-released iPad Mini with Retina display, where sapphire is a big deal, iWork for Mac expectations, and more!

Subscribe and download: TWiT.TV

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/qs4RZ9JIGpA/story01.htm
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Three things you should know about the PlayStation 4 OS

Sony laid its social networking ambitions out on the table when it announced the use of real names on PSN, its online network, for the PlayStation 4. Now, as the company preps that next-gen console for launch this week, we're finally learning more about how those new PSN profiles will work and just what it is the PS4 Eye camera can actually do. And not everything works the way you would think.

Though you'd expect the PS4 Eye to be able to capture your image and connect it to your PSN profile, that's not actually the case. Sony's only allowing integration with Facebook accounts as a means of pulling real-world photos into PSN. And if you don't happen to have a Facebook account, well, you're out of luck. The only other option is to choose from the avatars Sony makes available, much like the current PSN setup for PS3 and PS Vita.

For the sake of privacy, Sony's made it so public profiles will revert to a user's PSN ID. That means real names won't just show up in your Friends list by default. To enable them, you'll have to enter settings and specifically request access from each friend. That will also impact how you search for friends, since you'll need their PSN ID to at least initially make contact.

Before today's PlayStation 4 preview event, Sony hadn't gone into great deal about the PS4 Eye camera's extended functions. Sure, we'd heard about the vague possibilities of voice commands and facial recognition, but the particulars were shrouded in mystery. Well, we now know that you can launch games and even shut down the system with speech alone, but you can also set the system to log into your account via face unlock alone.

We watched a Sony rep demo the initial setup for this and it appeared relatively simple. Users will need to go through a five-stage process to give the system adequate facial data, which involves moving your head up and down, and tilting it at various angles. Once that image is set and attached to your account, the PS4 Eye will log on to your profile using one of two triggers: by head motion or by bringing the DualShock 4's light bar into view. We'll wait until our final review of the system to issue a verdict on just how flawlessly this facial recognition works outside of a controlled demo environment. But based on our first impression, it appears users will have a viable, hands-free alternative to getting their PS4's up and running.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/11/three-things-you-should-know-about-the-playstation-4/?ncid=rss_truncated
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NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of November 7, 2013

Bee Fox is a nice kid, a good musician and a great student. But her mother, Bernadette, is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect. Then, Bernadette goes missing, and Bee begins a search that will take her to the ends of the earth.

Source: http://www.npr.org/books/bestsellers/paperback-fiction/2013/week45/?ft=1&f=1032
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Understanding what makes a thin film solar cell efficient

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Nov-2013

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Contact: Dr. Michael Hagmann
[email protected]
41-587-654-592
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)

'Recipe' for high-efficiency solar cells published in 'Nature Materials'

For many years scientists and engineers have been trying to provide low-cost solar energy by developing a cheap solar cell that is both highly efficient and at the same time simple to build, enabling it to be mass produced. Now, the team led by Empa researcher Ayodhya N. Tiwari has made a major leap forward: the researchers are presenting a new manufacturing technique for CIGS solar cells, in which tiny quantities of sodium and potassium are incorporated into the CIGS layer. The special treatment alters the chemical composition of the complex sandwich structure thereby altering its electronic properties, as confirmed by various methods including detailed electron microscope investigations. Details of the new method have now been published as an "Advance Online Publication" in the renowned journal "Nature Materials": http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat3789.html

With this technique, the Empa team has again been able to significantly increase the energy conversion efficiency from sunlight into electricity using CIGS thin film solar cells on flexible plastic foils to a new record level of 20.4%, representing a marked improvement over the previous record of 18.7% established by the same team in May 2011. This finally enables CIGS cells to compete with the best polycrystalline silicon cells. Until recently, the Empa CIGS cells were the most efficient in the world; at the end of October, though, a German research team at the Zentrum fr Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung (ZSW) in Stuttgart presented CIGS cells with an efficiency of 20.8%, although they use far higher processing temperatures and (rigid) glass as the substrate. The slightly improved record shows that CIGS thin film technologies are a "hot" topic and that Empa is right at the cutting edge.

###

Reference

Potassium-induced surface modification of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films for high-efficiency solar cells, A. Chirila, P. Reinhard, F. Pianezzi, P. Bloesch, A.R. Uhl, C. Fella, L. Kranz, D. Keller, C. Gretener, H. Hagendorfer, D. Jaeger, R. Erni, S. Nishiwaki, S. Buecheler, A.N. Tiwari, Nature Materials, 2013, doi:10.1038/nmat3789 Empa media release (January 2013)

http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/1351/131475/---/l=2/changeLang=true/lartid=131475/orga=/type=/theme=/bestellbar=/new_abt=/uacc=

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Nov-2013

[ | E-mail ] Share

Contact: Dr. Michael Hagmann
[email protected]
41-587-654-592
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)

'Recipe' for high-efficiency solar cells published in 'Nature Materials'

For many years scientists and engineers have been trying to provide low-cost solar energy by developing a cheap solar cell that is both highly efficient and at the same time simple to build, enabling it to be mass produced. Now, the team led by Empa researcher Ayodhya N. Tiwari has made a major leap forward: the researchers are presenting a new manufacturing technique for CIGS solar cells, in which tiny quantities of sodium and potassium are incorporated into the CIGS layer. The special treatment alters the chemical composition of the complex sandwich structure thereby altering its electronic properties, as confirmed by various methods including detailed electron microscope investigations. Details of the new method have now been published as an "Advance Online Publication" in the renowned journal "Nature Materials": http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat3789.html

With this technique, the Empa team has again been able to significantly increase the energy conversion efficiency from sunlight into electricity using CIGS thin film solar cells on flexible plastic foils to a new record level of 20.4%, representing a marked improvement over the previous record of 18.7% established by the same team in May 2011. This finally enables CIGS cells to compete with the best polycrystalline silicon cells. Until recently, the Empa CIGS cells were the most efficient in the world; at the end of October, though, a German research team at the Zentrum fr Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung (ZSW) in Stuttgart presented CIGS cells with an efficiency of 20.8%, although they use far higher processing temperatures and (rigid) glass as the substrate. The slightly improved record shows that CIGS thin film technologies are a "hot" topic and that Empa is right at the cutting edge.

###

Reference

Potassium-induced surface modification of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films for high-efficiency solar cells, A. Chirila, P. Reinhard, F. Pianezzi, P. Bloesch, A.R. Uhl, C. Fella, L. Kranz, D. Keller, C. Gretener, H. Hagendorfer, D. Jaeger, R. Erni, S. Nishiwaki, S. Buecheler, A.N. Tiwari, Nature Materials, 2013, doi:10.1038/nmat3789 Empa media release (January 2013)

http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/1351/131475/---/l=2/changeLang=true/lartid=131475/orga=/type=/theme=/bestellbar=/new_abt=/uacc=

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/sflf-uwm110513.php
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Cleveland kidnap survivor sits down with Dr. Phil

CLEVELAND (AP) — One of three women who escaped from a ramshackle Cleveland home after more than a decade in captivity is about to share her story.

Michelle Knight will appear on the "Dr. Phil" show Tuesday and Wednesday in a taped interview. She was kidnapped in 2002.

The show says Knight "describes the horrible conditions in the house" and reveals her physical, mental and sexual abuse.

The show says Knight talks about being "tied up like a fish" and spending weeks chained and tortured in the basement.

Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped May 6 when Berry pushed out a door and yelled for help.

Their kidnapper, Ariel Castro, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. He hanged himself Sept. 3, just weeks into his sentence.

• Crime & Justice
• Society & Culture
• Michelle Knight

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-kidnap-survivor-sits-down-dr-phil-154919195.html
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NASA eyes a 'decoupled' Tropical Depression Raymond

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Rob Gutro
[email protected]
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Satellite data shows that the lower level circulation of Raymond decoupled from the middle layer of the storm. When a Tropical Depression decouples, it means the layers of circulation in the atmosphere are no longer "stacked" on top of each other. NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Raymond that showed the strongest storms, associated with a mid-level circulation center, had broken away from the center.

Think of a tropical cyclone as having several layers of circulation, a lower level, mid-level and upper level. When one of those levels is pushed away from the others, much like pushing the middle of a haystack, the storm weakens. That's what has happened to Raymond.

On Oct. 29 at 4:59 p.m. EDT, NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Raymond, still a tropical storm and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument captured an infrared image. The AIRS images revealed that the coldest cloud top temperatures, and highest, strongest storms were pushed away from the center of circulation. AIRS data also showed some high clouds associated with Raymond were streaming to the east-northeast and over the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. The image of the AIRS infrared data was created at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Tropical Storm Raymond weakened to a depression early on Oct. 30 and is expected to dissipate later in the day.

The National Hurricane Center noted that Raymond decoupled over the night of Oct. 29. Satellite data shows that the low-level center was a couple of hundred nautical miles to the southwest the mid-level circulation that includes an area of strong convection (rising air that forms thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone). Microwave satellite data also showed that Raymond has elongated, which is another sign of weakening.

To make matters worse for Raymond, its moving into cooler sea surface temperatures and running into dry air - two more factors that will sap its strength.

On Oct. 30 at 5 a.m. EDT/0900 UTC, Tropical Depression Raymond's maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph/55 kph and it was weakening. The center of the depression was located near latitude 19.6 north and longitude 115.7 west, about 440 miles/705 km west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Raymond was moving toward the northeast near 6 mph/9 kph and is expected to turn north while degenerating to a remnant low pressure area.

###

Text credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

[ | E-mail ] Share

Contact: Rob Gutro
[email protected]
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Satellite data shows that the lower level circulation of Raymond decoupled from the middle layer of the storm. When a Tropical Depression decouples, it means the layers of circulation in the atmosphere are no longer "stacked" on top of each other. NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Raymond that showed the strongest storms, associated with a mid-level circulation center, had broken away from the center.

Think of a tropical cyclone as having several layers of circulation, a lower level, mid-level and upper level. When one of those levels is pushed away from the others, much like pushing the middle of a haystack, the storm weakens. That's what has happened to Raymond.

On Oct. 29 at 4:59 p.m. EDT, NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Raymond, still a tropical storm and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument captured an infrared image. The AIRS images revealed that the coldest cloud top temperatures, and highest, strongest storms were pushed away from the center of circulation. AIRS data also showed some high clouds associated with Raymond were streaming to the east-northeast and over the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. The image of the AIRS infrared data was created at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Tropical Storm Raymond weakened to a depression early on Oct. 30 and is expected to dissipate later in the day.

The National Hurricane Center noted that Raymond decoupled over the night of Oct. 29. Satellite data shows that the low-level center was a couple of hundred nautical miles to the southwest the mid-level circulation that includes an area of strong convection (rising air that forms thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone). Microwave satellite data also showed that Raymond has elongated, which is another sign of weakening.

To make matters worse for Raymond, its moving into cooler sea surface temperatures and running into dry air - two more factors that will sap its strength.

On Oct. 30 at 5 a.m. EDT/0900 UTC, Tropical Depression Raymond's maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph/55 kph and it was weakening. The center of the depression was located near latitude 19.6 north and longitude 115.7 west, about 440 miles/705 km west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Raymond was moving toward the northeast near 6 mph/9 kph and is expected to turn north while degenerating to a remnant low pressure area.

###

Text credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nsfc-nea103013.php
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Can You Teach Compassion?

The Dalai Lama shares a laugh with Archbishop Desmond Tutu as they take part in an event to teach compassion to children in Seattle, in 2008.

Photo by Robert Sorbo/Reuters

We can be healthier, live longer, and make the world a better place by exploring our potential for compassionate behavior, according to neurosurgeon James Doty, founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, part of the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences.

Where does your strong interest in compassion, altruism and empathy come from?
Having grown up in poverty with a father who was an alcoholic and a mother who was an invalid, I was exposed to suffering—lack of shelter, lack of food. Sometimes you would see people in positions of power or wealth who could intervene to help, and either would be silent observers or would turn away. And then you would see other people who would immediately reach out. Why is it that there are some who are immediately engaged, and others who turn away as soon as they see suffering because they don't want any proximity to it? That paradox stuck with me.

So much so that you founded the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University?
Yes. Later in life, when I got into a position in which I could more seriously think about this, I began conversations with my colleagues at Stanford which led to preliminary research efforts. I also wanted the Dalai Lama to come to Stanford to speak because I thought his message on the importance of compassion was compelling. He did come, and it led to individuals donating significant sums, and it began a research effort, which continues.

What is the goal of the center?
Its mission is to understand the neuroscience of compassion and altruism on a deep level, and the impact of these behaviors on health and longevity. One goal is how to maximize an individual's potential in these areas.

Why is that worth exploring?
We know that as a species we flourish and thrive when we care for others. Not only do you feel happier, but you live better, you feel better, you live longer. And it's a self-supporting activity in the sense that when you do those activities and they make you feel good, it makes you want to continue. It's a boon to humanity, but also to one's self.

Might some people still think you are simply saying "it's nice to be good"?
If we can show that you have the potential to increase your capacity for kindness and caring, and that this should result in dramatic improvements in your personal relationships, significant decrease in inflammation, improvement in cardiac function, increase in your telomere length (the DNA that protects the ends of your chromosomes), which increases longevity. ... If we can show you this proposition, then I think it is different to that.

Some people react with compassion when seeing another's suffering, and some don't. Is this divide a result of nature versus nurture?
It's an open question, but most likely a mix. You can fall back on the happiness literature and say the nature/nurture split is 50–50. We know that genes have a significant impact on behavior. For example, with a female rodent who typically would be protective of her young, if we manipulate a particular gene by turning it off, then she abandons them. We also know that variations in gene receptors for oxytocin can result in individuals being less altruistic. I suspect that, like happiness, we will find a similar split between how one's DNA and environment affects their ability to be kind and caring.

Can we all become more compassionate?
There's a small subset of people on the side of extraordinarily kind, compassionate, and that's their baseline—Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama. And then there's a fairly small group who, no matter what we do to try to potentiate their capacity for compassion, don't have that capacity. Between those extremes are the rest of us, who can probably benefit from some kind of intervention or training when it comes to our ability to be altruistic or compassionate.

So how does CCARE try to intervene?
It has a program of compassion-cultivation training courses that includes both meditation and group-focused activities. There are also other institutions in the United States and internationally that have intervention or training programs of which a large component focuses on increasing compassion.

What effect are these measures having?
There's preliminary data that people who take our eight-week course show greater compassion. We also did some work with Stanford psychologist Jeanne Tsai in which individuals went through our training and then we studied how they responded to a scenario of writing to someone in prison for murder. Some think being compassionate means you give others a free pass regarding responsibility. But what was found was that no one gave this presumed murderer a free pass. They held them to be responsible but also encouraged them that they did have a future.

Could what is being learned about altruism help us tackle challenges such as war and injustice?
Research has shown that there is a tendency, based on evolutionary aspects, for us to define a tribe or an anchor, an in-group and out-group. Ultimately this doesn't work for the greater good. To overcome these natural mechanisms, certain techniques help: simply looking at that other group, whose members you would not normally feel kinship with, and saying, "Well, it turns out that they want their children to be educated like mine. They have the same interest in seeing X, Y or Z occur, just like me." It has a profound effect on how you perceive your responsibility to others. It gives you the realization of our shared humanity and interdependence. It changes how you interact.

The Dalai Lama donated to CCARE. Can a body funded by a religious leader do good science?
The Dalai Lama has had an interest in the neuroscience of meditation for more than 30 years, and which is more recently focused on compassion. But there is not one shred of evidence that there was ever any agenda related to the promotion of Buddhism. He has very specifically separated empirical science from religious dogma in his talks.

Where does the work of CCARE go from here?
I would like to create a virtual compassion gym, where individuals get a psychological profile which takes into account what resonates with them, be it spirituality or religiosity, or other types of philosophies. Additionally, we would incorporate what we have learned from online gaming and psychology on engagement. Based on that, we would create a plan so they can strengthen their compassion muscle and then show how they benefit, both mentally and physiologically. If we've done our work correctly, the results will be strong motivators for them to continue, hopefully making their lives and society better.

How hopeful are you that the world can become a more compassionate place?
I think that we're really seeing a sea change in how people perceive their place in the world. The millennium generation is the first to grow up with 24/7 access to global information. When you see the suffering of others, you realize that those individuals could just as easily have been you. It's much easier to say, "I can't let that happen—I feel their pain." That is how humanity is going to survive.

This article originally appeared in New Scientist.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2013/10/stanford_compassion_and_altruism_research_james_doty_and_the_dalai_lama.html
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U.S. Spying Takes Center Stage At EU Summit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is furious about the U.S. eavesdropping on her calls. She is the latest to protest loudly to the U.S. as the EU gathers for a regular summit. The meeting should have focused on immigration and the economy, but will be sidetracked by the continued NSA spying anger.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240559681&ft=1&f=1004
Category: Alice Munro   Niall Horan   nfl schedule   will smith   Hunter Hayes