Between long work hours, birthday parties, and haircuts, mothers can seem furious all the time. In this week's Newsweek, Lisa Miller says planning the family vacation feels like the last straw.
"Why are working mothers so furious all the time?" I was asked recently. An answer, not entirely rational, springs to mind: "Personally, I could use a travel agent." It's a joke, sort of. School vacation is coming up. I'm swamped at work, and trip planning has become a time-consuming hell. A simple family vacation requires innumerable visits to destination websites; a suspicious scouring of rankings and reviews; and, at the heart-stopping final moment, a purchase on a site where prices and availability seem to change by the second. In the old days, it was simple. A woman would call a travel agent, and voilà! The trip would be booked. Now agents charge $35 a ticket. Don't get me started on fees.
"Why are working mothers so furious all the time?" I was asked recently. An answer, not entirely rational, springs to mind: "Personally, I could use a travel agent." It's a joke, sort of. School vacation is coming up. I'm swamped at work, and trip planning has become a time-consuming hell. A simple family vacation requires innumerable visits to destination websites; a suspicious scouring of rankings and reviews; and, at the heart-stopping final moment, a purchase on a site where prices and availability seem to change by the second. In the old days, it was simple. A woman would call a travel agent, and voilà! The trip would be booked. Now agents charge $35 a ticket. Don't get me started on fees.
- 2/7/2011
- by Lisa Miller
- The Daily Beast
Human beings are social animals; we devote a significant portion of our brain just to dealing with interactions with other humans. It should come as no surprise, then, that social Web technologies have a complex relationship with brain function. When these platforms work in concert with our social brains, they can enable persistent relationships or provide emotional/social augmentation. When social web technologies clash with brain function, however, the results can be surprising.
A new report from the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California drives that point home.
In "Neural Correlates of Admiration and Compassion,", Antonio Damasio and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang argue that the human brain evolved to very quickly recognize and empathize with physical pain and fear in others, but is much slower to recognize and empathize with emotional pain, or to acknowledge and celebrate virtue or skill. What this means is that, in a...
A new report from the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California drives that point home.
In "Neural Correlates of Admiration and Compassion,", Antonio Damasio and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang argue that the human brain evolved to very quickly recognize and empathize with physical pain and fear in others, but is much slower to recognize and empathize with emotional pain, or to acknowledge and celebrate virtue or skill. What this means is that, in a...
- 4/15/2009
- by Jamais Cascio
- Fast Company
ROSIE O'DONNELL, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg have been brightening the lives of seriously ill children - by phoning them for a chat. They are just three of the stars to sign up to FAMOUS FONE FRIENDS - an American charity that arranges for celebrities to telephone children who are hospitalised or home-bound due to serious illness or injury. And charity organiser Linda Stone says having a star on the other end of the line can make an incalculable difference. She says, "We find out what the children's hobbies are and then they just call the children up and talk to them about anything they think they may be interested in." Although the charity recommends the stars make just one phone call, some they just can't stop from doing more. Stone says, "Robin Williams invited one child, who had a disfiguring illness, to his house for a game of pool. DAVID HASSLEHOFF another one who always does more. He holds onto numbers and always keeps in touch with the children." Now they're appealing to Britney Spears and golf hero TIGER WOODS to join the ranks. "We're desperate to get BRITNEY and TIGER on board as everyone is asking for them at the moment."...
- 4/6/2000
- WENN
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