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Every so often a meme comes along that reaffirms the positive potential of the Internet. Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project” is one such example. “When a 13 year-old kills […]

Just under two months ago I received the news that I, along with 10 of my co-workers, would be laid off. Unlike most I was OK with this as I […]

Celebrate ten years of amazing images of volcanism (and the rest of earth) from space.

Yesterday my boss asked me a question out of the blue.  “Didn’t you used to sell stocks?” “A long time ago,” I said. And with that, he began to tell […]

If a cliché is beautifully wrought does it save it from the evils of being cliché? David Brooks does not like what he refers to as the “Quiet Desperation dogma” […]

nn Happy 28th anniversary of the 1980 Mt. Saint Helens eruption. The volcano had a catastrophic collapse of one side of the edifice that triggered the climatic eruption. Enjoy this clip from […]

House Democrats are in trouble. Even with substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats have been unable to get the economy back to operating at full capacity. Whatever the […]

The annual cull of the endangered pilot dolphins just off the coast of the remote Faroe Islands is barbarism.

Random acts of kindness have been shown to increase everything from self-esteem to happiness level. At the same time, the paradox of choice is known to increase our cognitive load […]

“Happy F*ckin’ Labor Day! Before there were unions, there was no middle class.” Michael Moore tells White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel he ought to defend the UAW.

Former CBS news correspondent Jere Van Dyk talks about the survival skills he used to get through a 45-day kidnapping ordeal in Afghanistan where his life was threatened daily.

The World has watched and cheered to the rafters the human drama unfolding in Chile. That thirty three miners could be trapped underground for two months, survive and be winched […]

“The contemporary customer is mad as hell—fed up with inept service, indifferent employees, and customer-service departments that are harder to negotiate than Kafka’s Castle.”

Far from simply being a relaxed state, meditation is a period of heightened mental activity. Long-term practice can increase one’s capacity for attention as well as compassion.

nn Right as Yellowstone is getting interesting (or at least had signs of interest), Eruptions is going on a bit of a break again starting January 2. This time it is […]

Given that machines will continue to proliferate in our environment, it behooves us to begin to develop friendly relationships with them.

This little blog on volcanic activity has turned one year old today!

nn As you could probably figure out, sometimes there isn’t much new volcano-related news out there in the get interwebs. I’ve been trying to think of ways to fill in […]

“Money doesn’t buy happiness all on its own purchasing power, but rather happiness comes indirectly from the higher status money provides.” Relative income is what counts, says new research.

“The unhappier parts of my career enabled me to say the more trenchant things,” says the novelist. But “if I’m not happy enough to finish the book … it doesn’t […]

Few details are provided, but in a buzz-generating interview, here is what The Sun (UK) reports: “The former US Vice President said: ‘I will make a sequel to the 2006 […]

Who gets to say who owns our libraries, and what are the risks embedded in making a library profit-driven? The New York Times choice to give Library Systems and Services […]

It is holiday break time for Eruptions … and time to think about what to nominate for “Volcanic Event of the Year”!

A new study published in the journal Psychological Science has found that people have “two concurrent, yet paradoxical and conflicting, desires: They (a) dread idleness and desire busyness, but (b) […]

Lots of volcanological goodies coming up next week at the annual Geological Society of America meeting, this year in Portland, Oregon.

If you can believe it, the Chaiten eruption – and this blog – have just turned two!

Psychologists and economists have long wondered whether increased wealth does indeed translate into happiness, and now new research indicates that to the (small) extent we are made happier by our […]

Psychiatrists see a lot of people who are, to use the technical term, screwed up. Psychiatrists’ talk, then, often turns around curing, or ameliorating, or at least preventing “bad” behaviors […]

Last week I bought my tickets for the Wilco concert in July at Wolf Trap. The “alt country rock” band from Chicago has sired two of the best albums of […]

Today’s technology allows “casual happy snappers” to come up with some cool images. But ultimately the strength of good photography is in knowing one’s self and responding to emotions.