John Boudreau, Mercury News, reports:
Today, Cisco Systems is announcing a $2.5 million grant to a Seattle non-profit agency that gives the homeless, poor and jobless — here and around the country — something most Silicon Valley residents take for granted: a voice-mail box.
“It is virtually impossible to get a job without a phone,'’ said Jennifer Brandon, executive director of Community Voice Mail, the grant recipient that works with organizations around the nation to provide free voice mail. “This isn’t a phone. But it is a cost-effective alternative. It’s a reliable and consistent phone number. It removes the stigma of being homeless or in transition.'’
(via Techdirt.)
(more…)
Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer, reports:
The vast majority of the 2.7 million job losses since the 2001 recession began were the result of permanent changes in the U.S. economy and are not coming back, which means the labor market will not regain strength until new positions are created in novel and dynamic economic sectors, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study has concluded.
(more…)
Buddhists are happier. No, really. Also, they/we are calmer and more serene than most people, at least according to research conducted by several sets of scientists. Using sophisticated brain scanners, neuroscientists showed that certain parts of the brain associated with positive mood states light up constantly in Buddhist meditators. And this happens even when they’re not meditating.
Research at the University of Wisconsin, examining experienced Buddhist meditators, demonstrated an unusual amount of activity in the prefrontal lobes of the brain. These areas are linked to positive mind states as well as self-control.
Paul Ekman of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center suggests that meditation also tames the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. Experienced meditators, he found, were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or angry, compared to other people. “There is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek,” he says.
The studies are published in New Scientist. (via Snow Lion Publications).
