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Almost every responsible political leader today expresses a desire to contribute to peace in the Middle East.
Easier said than done. A real effort to promote peace requires an understanding of what motivates the parties to the conflict.
I can’t say I quite get what makes the Palestinians tick. If they truly want a two-state agreement with Israel, they sure have a strange way of pursuing it, rejecting every proposal put on the table since 1947.
But I do believe that anyone who genuinely seeks peace should consider four key factors that inform the Israeli worldview.
First, geography.
The throwaway line these days is that geography no longer matters in an era of long-range

It might not be what you think it is. Most people would say it’s no secret and that the answer is obvious — lower wages in China compared to the United States. However, that answer is only partially true. Why? Because labor is only one part of the total cost of a product, and in many cases it’s as low as 20 percent of the total cost.
Let’s compare two simple products that are primarily made in China: a stuffed toy animal for a baby and a

Daniel BjarnasonComposer/conductor/pianist Danel Bjarnason was born in Reykjavk in 1980. He graduated cum laude in 2007 from the Freiburg University of Music. Isafold Chamber Orchestra co-founder Bjarnason’s collaborations include the London Sinfonietta, the Ulster Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, lf Arnalds, and Sigur Rs. Accolades include recognition by the International Rostrum of Composers in Dublin (2008), Icelandic Music Awards for Best Composer and Best Composition (2009), and a Nordic Council Music Prize nomination

In the realm of marketing to adults older than 45, vigorous debates arise about how best to construct advertising messages and frame offers in memorable and compelling ways. Pundit opinions fall into three overlapping theoretical camps.
Some are proponents of “Ageless Marketing” as conceived and articulated by my colleague David Wolfe. Ageless Marketing is “marketing based not on age but on values and universal desires that appeal to people across generational divides. Age-based marketing reduces the reach of brands because of its exclusionary

Is it forever, a flash, a still life or a moving picture? Is she a teenager or is still on the eve of turning seven?
Sylvia left us seven years ago this week. And surprisingly, it hurt like crazy because you think you can get used to the loss or the pattern of what happens mid-August, but it is always different and at some times, surprising. Out of the blue, the day we had to say goodbye was as vivid — though honestly not as painful (how could it be/I could write a book about that) — as it was seven years ago. How do you let go — as if you could somehow stop it; confronting Life or more appropriately, Death, and standing in its

For those of us in the “old media business,” it may be hard to see and understand why, how, and what is really happening around us in the digital “space.” If you want a clear, cold dose of reality (and I’m not talking virtual), read Jaron Lanier’s book You Are Not a Gadget. Jaron is the father of virtual reality, but what is most valuable are his insights into the very birth of this technological revolution, what the original motivations for it were, and how they have played out over time. Like a bitter, regretful revolutionary who is looking back on a long career of fighting, his insights are surprising to those of us who were “on the other side.” And they reveal so much more about humanity than I think we ever suspect when we turn on our gadgets every morning to check in with the world and confirm our existence.
In the beginning, there were a bunch of geeks who built software and technology that “locked in” a view of the world in which the primary fantasy is that one (in other words, YOU) can, and might very well be, replaced by an immortal, inhuman, and virtual substitute. (This is, in essence, the philosophy known as Singularity.) After all, humanity is messy, painful, and hard to

A new study in Pediatrics says the recurrence risk of autism in younger siblings is higher than previously thought. Hardly comforting to autism families who want a second or third child and not surprising to me, mom of three daughters with autism.
In 1999, my husband and I were considering having a third child. Mia and Gianna (4 and 3 years old at the time) had just been diagnosed with

In response to the unprecedented actions of immigrant rights groups in cities across the country, officials in the Obama Administration announced changes to administrative policies that will give 300,000 people currently in deportation proceedings the right to hearing before an immigration judge. Nothing more. More than a few of the 300,000 will likely still be ordered deported by judges known by immigration lawyers to consistently deny immigrant pleas for justice.
While the administrative changes are a small, but important change for many of the 300,000 people that will benefit from from the president’s use of his discretionary authority to change immigartion policy , the announcement of the new policies may actually ending exacerbating credibility issues among Latino voters already questioning their former support for Candidate Obama.
Consider, for example, how today’s announcement of the president’s deployment of his administrative discretion contradicts the repeated and vociferous statements he made about not being able to use his executive authority to, for example, stop deporting DREAM Act-eligible students. As recently as last week, on the eve of and in response to our National Day of Action, President Obama said in an interview with Latina magazine about our long-held demands that he used his executive authority to stop deporting DREAMers, “Well, the truth of the matter is that we have exercised as much administrative discretion as we can.”
President Obama and his operatives in campaign offices throughout the country were shaken up by the rise of the Angry Latino Voters who protested and delivered tens of thousands of petitions to end the extremely controversial Secure Communities or “SCOMM” program during last Tuesday’s National Day of Action, when Latino communities in several US cities protested at Obama campaign

Amigo is a companion piece to John Sayles’ new novel, A Moment in the Sun – or perhaps it’s the other way around.
While it’s easy to admire Sayles’ acuity in locating a metaphor for America’s preemptive war in Iraq and endless struggle in Afghanistan, Amigo is slow-going. Set during the Philippine-American war (1899-1902), it’s too schematic and not nearly dramatic or tense enough, even when it’s showing us things that should touch a nerve or an emotion.
In the film, an American battalion marches in and takes over a small, agrarian village in a remote Philippines province. Their reason for being there: They know that rebel forces live in the jungle nearby – and that the villagers are related to the rebel chieftain.
But, as in Vietnam – or Afghanistan or Iraq – the Americans are woefully unprepared to deal with the villagers on their own level. They have no knowledge of the culture and no interest in

Like the rest of the country, I couldn’t help but notice the occurrence of black teen ‘”flash mobs” around the country. For those who haven’t been made hip to the game, flash mobs are random groups of people who get together and do “stuff.”
The acts committed by flash mobs can be nave and cute, like singing the Star Spangled Banner on one leg while drinking a Pepsi. They can also be nasty and violent, like beating down anyone who happens to be passing by.
We can leave it to teenagers to find creative and potentially frightening ways to use the amazing power of social media. Black teen flash mobs have been formed throughout the country, with many of them being designed to break the law in some way.
The most recent incident involved the 60-second robbing of a 7-11 store in

You might think these are the words of a marginal student trying to just keep up. However, I asked a high achieving college senior at a top tier school to give me some insight into the use of energy drinks at her University. My interest in energy drinks arose from the recent report of a seizure in a 15-year-old boy who drank two 5-hour Energy shots in rapid succession. Are energy drinks the new coffee? Do they have excessive health risks and do they need to be regulated, or is the problem limited to their excessive use in our youth?
Energy, Danger or Both?
Sports and energy drinks are an enormous business with projected sales in 2011 of more than 9 billion

This year’s World Humanitarian Day is a celebration of people helping people. In Nairobi, where my colleague Kirk Prichard and I have been deployed on short notice to support Concern Worldwide’s emergency response in the Horn of Africa, we see evidence of people helping people every day. And though international staff like us are called on to contribute to the relief effort, it is almost entirely powered by Kenyans.
Concern’s Kenya team works in partnership with local organizations that are Kenyan-run, Kenyan-staffed, and crucially, implement Kenya-appropriate

For decades I have worked with severely “at-risk” youth; some who willingly put their lives at risk, and others who find themselves at risk for reasons beyond their control. Of course, all youth are at risk to some degree, as each young person must risk themselves in the world to learn who they are at the core of their life. Now, amidst growing fears and uncertainty about the future, young people sense that everything around them is at greater risk. Young people, who are supposed to be the “future of the world,” can find themselves fearing that the world has very little future to offer

Do you ever feel like curling up in a ball and trying to forget the problems around you? With everything going on in the world today — sky high unemployment, the housing market at its lowest point, prolonged wars in the Middle East, famine and genocide in Africa, the stock market in free-fall and our economy sputtering almost to a stop — you sure wouldn’t be alone in wanting to do this. But, there may be another option.
What typically happens when you experience a crisis in one part of your life, such as a major health problem, getting laid off or having trouble paying your bills? Everything else in your life grinds to a halt.
You stay at work a little longer. You exercise a little

When an economy is in a slump and the fear of debt overhang and default surrounds us, there is a tendency to tighten our belts. But these actions only serve to deepen the slump. Economists suggest that to offset private caution, we should resort to public sector stimulus. Hopefully, such stimulus is directed toward building things that boost our future productivity, like science and research, infrastructure repairs and upgrades, and

By Peter H. Stone and Aaron Mehta, iWatch News 6:00 am, August 19, 2011Rick Perry needs to move fast in the presidential money chase to capitalize on his strong suit: the army of large donors who have raised more than $100 million for his gubernatorial campaigns since 2001.Dozens of wealthy Texans who have been Perry’s top patrons in the state’s freewheeling, unregulated campaign finance landscape are being hit up for six-figure checks by Super PACs supporting the governor. Simultaneously, many wealthy Perry backers and new prospects are being tapped by his campaign to help bundle scores of $2,500 donations, the legal limit per person.The Republican governor is being backed by at least six Super PACs. The key group, called Make Us Great Again, has the closest ties to Perry and is expected to be a multimillion-dollar operation that will run ads to back

In every life, reminders arrive about what’s really important.
I’ve recently received one myself, in a form that’s already come to countless people and will come to countless more: news of a potentially serious health problem. My semi-annual dermatology mole check turned up a localized melanoma cancer in my ear that will need to come out immediately. The prognosis is very positive — this thing is “non-invasive” — but it’s certainly an intimation of mortality. Hopefully, this particular bullet will whiz by, but it’s an uncomfortably concrete message that sooner or later something will catch up with each one of us.
Personally, I am doing alright with

I have tried all sorts of different workouts in my time. In addition to all the outdoor things I partake of — from running and cycling (off and on road) to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and hiking to kayaking, rock climbing and swimming — I do yoga and what’s variously called Physique 57, Bar Effect, Core Fusion or Nalini classes. In what feels like another lifetime (during my law school years), I was an aerobics instructor. And I’ve tried all sorts of gym classes (despite my lack of a membership): from kickboxing to step classes (yes, that goes back some years) to pole dancing and

One evening, my husband and I were out to dinner with two of our close friends, Penny and Peter. Penny had just joined the board of Outward Bound, the well-known, non-profit organization dedicated to helping people explore the world and expand themselves and their potential through wilderness trekking and travel. To celebrate, she was in the process of planning a trip to Africa with the rest of the board to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
“Oh, Tina, why don’t you come along?” she asked

If your goal is to lose weight and improve your health, what’s going to be better for you, walking or running? Like most fitness-related questions, this one takes me back to a joke I heard in third grade:
What weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Just as you may be tempted to shout “bricks!” (as I would often do right up through eighth grade, when the subtleties of this riddle and “no soap radio” were finally explained to me), you may be tempted to assume that running is the greater “burn” of the two exercises. And, like all questions in fitness, I remind you that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
Let’s break it down.
Calorie burn is based on energy consumption over a period of time, and the best way to gauge that energy consumption is by monitoring your heart rate as you exercise. But heart rate itself is based on oxygen consumption. In other words, as your body increases its need for oxygen due to exertion, the heart has to pump more oxygen rich blood to the extremities and the heart rate goes

A Conversation with Imelda May
Mike Ragogna: Hello ther, Imelda May.
Imelda May: Hello. How are you?
MR: I’m pretty good. How have you been?
IM: Doing well. This is the last day of the tour, and it’s going very

It may be hard to imagine in today’s world, but there was once a time when computers didn’t exist, cell phones didn’t exist. If you go back far enough, there was even a time the written word didn’t exist.
We should feel privileged to live in an era of such advancements. It’s easier than ever to stay connected with people and develop relationships all over the world.
But this era of Facebook and Twitter (each not even a decade old) can be dangerous too. Stepping back to a simpler world now and then can prove

By Evan Bush, iWatch News 6:00 am, August 18, 2011A liquid concoction, often laced with toxic chemicals, is a central villain in the controversy over extracting natural gas by fracturing rock beneath the earth’s surface. Opponents fear this fracking fluid may foul water supplies, endangering human health and the environment.Adapting, the industry is responding to public concern.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Eat less maybe… ?
Since I moved from Italy to the States almost 20 years ago I must have heard from Americans hundreds of times that Italians are obsessed with food (in a good way mind you).
My answer is always the same: Italians are indeed obsessed with food but they are obsessed with the QUALITY of food, they will go the extra mile for that perfect prosciutto slice and yes, they would talk about good food 99% of the time. But to tell the truth, I’ve never seen a culture more obsessed about food than the American. It’s an obsession mostly about QUANTITY of