Last week, a retired military commander took over as the White House chief of staff, stepping into a team environment that has been widely described as chaotic. Will Gen. John Kelly make a difference? What weve learned about leadership in my field of firefighting reveals why we must hope so.

On July 6, 1994, 14 wildland firefighters were entrapped by fire and killed in Colorado. The incident rocked the fire service, and the following year the U.S. Forest Service convened the Human Factors Workshop in Missoula, Mont. The aim was summed up by a newspaper headline: After 80 Years of Studying Fire, the Forest Service is Studying Firefighters. It wasnt about pumps, hose or fire behavior, but an evaluation of human behavior. Why do people act (or fail to act) the way they do during stressful, high-tempo operations?

The findings of the workshop spurred the creation of a suite of intense leadership courses for the wildland fire agencies, and a renewed emphasis on risk-management and communication skills. Theres an ongoing effort to institutionalize the practice of effective techniques.

For the past decade, Ive been a leadership instructor/facilitator for both rookies and emergency-service veterans. We draw on experience and wisdom from the military, the business community, the political sphere and social-sciences disciplines.

The courses have been well-received and transformative. At the end of one two-day session that involved heavy use of simulations and tactical decisionmaking games, one student approached me with a telling comment: Well, this is just about life, isnt it?

Exactly. Though we focus on wildland fire and emergency operations, the principles apply across the board.

We talk about power and the different forms in which it manifests. For example, there is position power you hold a job and a title that automatically confer authority. In the fire world, that would be an incident commander or a division supervisor; in the corporate domain, chief executive officer or chairman of the board. Perhaps the highest level of position power in the world is president of the United States.

I frequently find myself analyzing the leadership skills of those with position power. So when Donald Trump became president, I focused on him. The following assessment has nothing to do with political views yours, mine or Trumps. His opinions on immigration, climate change, taxes, health care, etc., are irrelevant to this discussion.

A few years ago, I jotted down the basic tenets of what the fire service considers effective and trustworthy leadership the traits that get the work done without placing people in unacceptably hazardous situations. Judge for yourself which of these is exhibited by President Trump. In no particular order, a leader must:

Recognize that a leader is a servant who holds the welfare of followers as first priority.

Delegate as much as you reasonably can; trust, but verify. Remember you can delegate authority but not responsibility. You share the credit and the blame.

Praise in public; criticize in private.

Admit and own your mistakes; apologize, correct the error and move on.

Seek the input of subordinates and superiors and follow it whenever you can. When their ideas and your ideas are equally legitimate, go with theirs and give them credit.

Follow administrative rules yourself, but make allowances for your people when its justified; do the right thing, even if it bends a rule.

Avoid arrogance in word, deed and demeanor.

Do not mourn failure more is learned from a debacle than from a triumph.

Celebrate the success of your team, but keep your contribution understated. A leader never finally succeeds, but only progresses. You are not done learning and honing your skills until you are retired or dead.

Be honest.

Control your anger. Its natural to be angry, but express it in measured tone and action.

Practice leaders intent task, purpose, end state. Give your team the task (heres what needs to be done); the purpose (heres why it needs to be done) and the end state (heres what success looks like). Then get out of their way. Do not micromanage.

Talk maintain a flow of accurate information up and down the chain of command.

Know yourself. Understand your strengths and capitalize on them; recognize your limitations and find means to mitigate them, usually via the aid of others. Be aware of your personal stress reactions and make them known to your team.

Employ recognition-primed decisionmaking (RPD). Under time pressure, you will make your decisions intuitively, grounded in experience of similar situations.

Cultivate mindfulness. Attention and focus are essential to maintaining effective situation awareness, and therefore to the practice of all of the above.

Made your judgment? As I review that summary, it is my opinion that Trump is lacking in almost every category. He is arrogant, self-serving, dishonest and reckless, and he regularly claims undue credit while shedding any blame. Hes a bully and a narcissist.

I would not trust Donald Trump as a fireground leader. I do not trust him as president. Yet he was fairly elected last November and is, by definition, my president and yours. To claim otherwise is fatuous and unhelpful. Ironically, Trump is one of the few who thought the election was rigged those pesky 3 million voters who cost him the popular vote majority. He claimed without evidence that they were illegal voters, another telling clue to his character.

But though he is my president, that doesnt mean I must follow him.

During one of our leadership courses, we ask students: Why should anyone follow you? The point is that position power alone is not enough to ensure leadership. The best way to lead is to create an environment where people want to follow, as opposed to being compelled to. Leadership is exerting influence, and the best way to influence is by establishing trust. For me, and many millions of others, Trump has utterly failed in that.

There are those who believe (or hope) he will grow into the job. I expressed that hope in these pages last November, but it has evaporated. I doubt he will rise to the challenge.

As the great boxing champion Muhammad Ali noted: The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

Trumps character was formed, and fixed, long ago. He certainly didnt wear a mask or a muzzle during the election campaign what we saw was what we got. Why would he change an approach or a persona that got him elected to the presidency? He is convinced of his prowess and infallibility. Trump is now commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world, the occupant of the highest bully pulpit, and is surrounded by so far as I can tell a Cabinet of advisers who are more like him than not. Some are his relatives. To students of history, that sounds an alarm.

This is the type of executive branch the framers of the U.S. Constitution had in mind when they devised the checks and balances. When Trump admitted that being president was harder than he thought it would be, constitutional resistance probably played a role. If we are fortunate, the worst damage Trump does will be to the notion that celebrity, notoriety and financial ruthlessness qualify you for high office. But I suspect it will be messier and more painful than that.

One of the finest leaders to wield the awesome position power of the president of the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower. He exhibited almost all of the traits listed above a signal and mature achievement. He said, You do not lead by hitting people over the head. Thats assault, not leadership.

Perhaps Gen. Kelly can get that across to his boss?

I take some comfort in Trumps low public-approval rating. As another skilled leader, Abraham Lincoln, noted in his first inaugural address: While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of weakness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short span of four years.

I hope our virtue and vigilance prevail. And I hope Lincoln was right.

Peter M. Leschak, of Side Lake, Minn., is a 36-year fire service veteran, both wildland and municipal, and author of Ghosts of the Fireground and other books. The opinions expressed here are solely his own.

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My president? Yes. My leader? No. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

GREENSBURG Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Over the past few years I have noticed a trend with human behavior that I find unsettling. I will say that I dont expect everyone to share the same values that I was raised with or that I subscribe to.

Just the other day I am sitting in a parking lot waiting on my wife when I hear a commotion about four parking aisles over. It appeared to be a mom with a child in her arms under two years of age and a little girl about six years old. I heard this mom yelling loudly: Get in the #%$ &%$! car. It was obvious this woman did not have time to buckle her little one in a car seat as she drove off as soon as she entered the vehicle.

I have observed other behaviors like this one in recent times and I find it disturbing. It leads one to think that respect and appropriate behavior has not been taught in the homes of many of those who are now parents.

Dont get me wrong, I know, first hand, how difficult children can be at times. They have a tendency to push a parents buttons. Granted, its tough raising kids. Always has been, always will be. They dont come with a personalized manual but, we do have the Bible as a guide. Todays scripture passage from Joshua is a good example of making a determination of setting the course for a family.

It seems apparent there are those who decide to not serve the Lord. Who do you choose to allow into your life? With Christ we find a relationship that will steer us on a course of life that helps us to stay away from the evil way.

Thats not to suggest everything will be perfect and smooth but, when we make a decision to follow Our Lord it sure gives us a resource to find strength in troubling times. Lets face it readers, there are times when something comes along that you have to just, offer it up.

Life isnt easy. My heart goes out to people like this mom I told you about. It was clear that she had not learned some parenting skills that could turn a bad situation into one that is more livable.

If there are any pastors who read this column, how well are you doing with providing some resource for parents? If you are a parent, are you searching for ways to better handle those hot times with your children?

For those of you who are older ladies, heres what the book of Titus says about what you can provide to society.

Titus 2:3 says: the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things

It seems clear that those of us who are older and have life experience certainly have something to offer to the younger people. I know, it seems that we beat our heads against the wall but, know that presenting Christ through your living will be seen and eventually understood.

Remember hearing this? Your life is the only Bible some people will ever read.

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Who do you serve? - Greensburg Daily News

The traditional American breakfast is a high-carb affair, with its heaping dishes of pancakes, waffles, toast, cereal. It may affect not just our waistlines, but also who we are.

In a recent study at the University of Lbeck in Germany, scientists asked participants about what they ate in the morning, then had them play the ultimatum game a common experiment that measures how much people tolerate unfairness. In essence, they were trying to test whether human behavior is subject to a well-known clich: Are we what we eat?

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We wanted to know whether our decision-making or thoughts might depend on what weve eaten, said So Young Park, a professor of social psychology and neuroscience at the University of Lbeck. We eat three times a day. And you can imagine that, if we change our behavior depending on our food, that would be quite striking information.

The ultimatum game puts study participants in an uncomfortable scenario. Players A and B are told that there is $10, but Player A must decide how the money is split between them. Scientists asked their study participants to act as Player B and watched how they reacted to lopsidedly unfair offers, such as being offered $1 out of $10. Study participants were told that, if they decided to reject an offer, neither person would take home any money at all.

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In theory, the respondent should accept any offer greater than zero, no matter how small, because its better than nothing, said Tobias Kalenscher, a professor of comparative psychology at the University of Dsseldorf. But respondents often would rather have nothing than live with an unfair deal.

The schools dining staff aims to become a national model for affordable, high-volume sourcing of locally grown food.

Though even a $2 offer could mean a nice doughnut for the next morning, scientists found that participants with high-carb breakfasts rejected unfair offers 40 percent more often than those with high-protein breakfasts.

We could see a very tremendous difference in these people, Park said. In a second experiment, breakfast was fed directly to study participants before they played the ultimatum game. Scientists found similar results, as well as differences in participants blood samples.

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High-carb people had lower tyrosine levels. And the lower the tyrosine levels, the higher the rejection rate, Kalenscher explained. Tyrosine is an amino acid that acts as a precursor for dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a significant role in our brains reward system. But this connection doesnt mean that we should clear out our cupboards and start anew with high-protein, low-carb diets.

You can say that people with high rejection rates are just sensitive to unfair treatment, Kalenscher said. Its absolutely not a bad thing.

The point is that food dictates your choices, Park said. Depending on what you have eaten, your choice is being dramatically modulated that is what were showing. You should really try to have a balanced diet.

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How breakfast rewires your brain - The Boston Globe

Many who seek to maintain America as a civilized and moral culture have been deeply troubled by increasing human behavior that doesnt reflect this character.

A recent event demands the response, Enough!

On July 9, Jamel Dunn, age 32, of Cocoa, Florida, drowned in a retention pond. His body was recovered July 14, two days after his fiance reported him missing. A week later, a family friend discovered on social media a video taken by five teenagers, recording the drowning, plus their reactions.

Not only did the teenagers ignore Dunns screams for help; they took great glee in his losing battle, laughing and jeering at his struggle, yelling things like, Nobody is going to help your a--!- to the point when his head finally goes under water, and they shriek, Oh he just died!

The teenagers went unpunished because authorities could find no laws they broke. But as civilized and moral human beings, we know something fundamental was very violated.

Our species of humans survived and thrived while others like Neanderthals did not, because we alone depended upon each other from the beginning. This universal truth is expressed in our Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

These teenagers were raised in American families and educated in American schools. Whatever we may think we taught them, we allowed them to reach adolescence as uncivilized and immoral individuals, which is much worse than being illiterate ones.

If they have no respect for human life, arent they prime candidates for violent crime?

I find them repulsive. But arent they children we failed? Why werent they taught human civility, morality and character?

American education is a crass enterprise, controlled by the interests of business and universities. It has little room or motivation for teaching and inspiring civility, morality and character.

Our schools strongly emphasize academic achievement and test scores. Some try to humanize themselves with social and emotional learning, even character programs. But kids know these are just add-ons that are not connected to the central college/jobs focus.

Families and parentsin the worst shape Ive seen in my 66-year teaching careerbuy into the schools academic focus out of fear their child will lose out in the college competition. Thus parents unwittingly abdicate their moral authority to the school.

Schools and parents are complicit in ignoring the moral development of children. Of course we have many parents, families and teachers who do a fine job in developing children with character, but that is not the norm today.

America was a powerful expression of humanity in civilization, founded on the belief that each individual has a unique potential that is to be valued. American educations first priority should be challenging and supporting every American child. In addition, the family must be an integral part of this process, since in character development, parents are the primary teachers and the home the primary classroom.

This rigorous process will produce self-confident, motivated and moral students with a larger purpose. Their scholarship and maturity will be welcomed by colleges and their drive and personal qualities by employers as well.

Im not describing utopia, just good teaching.

Horace Mann, the father of our public school system, said if he had a year to teach spelling, hed spend the first nine months on motivation. But today weve got a robotic educational system that essentially treats children like a herd of cattle, bombarding them with knowledge until they graduate. It insults their unique potential and Americas basic purpose.

There is a better way. I founded a school 51 years ago to test the educational focus on unique potential and character development; we helped the concept spread to public schools. Today we see thousands of graduates and their parents lead meaningful and fulfilling lives of honor.

The key to our success: Teaching children and their parents to discover their unique potential and character, and to value that learning process. This is what is missing from educationand our culture today.

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Our American Character is Under Siege - HuffPost

A while back I wrote a column entitled, Is War Our Nature? (5.20.16). In it, I discussed a then-recent archeological discovery revealing that the earliest warfare among humans was believed to have taken place around ten thousand years ago. The rhetorical question that I asked in that column was: Are we humans predisposed to war and violence since our history, as a species, is replete with it? In other words, is war part of our nature?

That very question leads to the time-tested issue of whether we humans are born with a nature, or set of instincts. The issue is termed, nature versus nurture. When we are born, are we genetically preprogrammed to behave in certain ways, such as to be violent, or do we learn our behavior from other people, such as our parents? One of the prevailing theories on the nurture side of the issue is called the blank slate. According to blank slate reasoning, a developing human brain has no predetermined information, or instincts. The child is, thus, born with a blank slate that will be filled with information through the learning process. Of course, as our technology improves and we learn more about the prenatal development process, we are beginning to understand that some learning may take place prior to birth.

The most convincing evidence supporting the blank slate theory, at least with respect to violence, is that not everyone is violent. If humans were preprogrammed to be violent, we would all be violent. Since we are not all violent, some of us must learn violence and some of us do not. Problem solved.

If only questions involving human behavior were that simple. Getting back to that ten-thousand-year-old battle, evidence from the site suggested that one of the warring parties had traveled quite a distance in order to engage in that battle. This was no spur-of-the-moment anger reaction. My guess is, also, that it was not an isolated event. Because we have not found evidence of prior warfare does not mean that such evidence does not exist. It simply means that we have not found it.

What we know for certain is that people were conducting organized, group warfare at least ten thousand years ago. We do not know why they were fighting, nor do we know how or why they learned to fight. There is much that can be surmised but very little that can be established with any degree of certainty. There are lessons to be learned from those unfortunate nomadic hunter-gatherers who fought that day, however. What we, in the 21st century, CE, can learn from those people and those events ten thousand years ago will have to wait for next weeks column. In the meanwhile, be well, be kind, and may God bless you.

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The Veterans' Chaplain: Nature or Nature - Theadanews

Robert Wright

Hachette Book Group

On this weeks episode of my podcast, I Have to Ask, I spoke with Robert Wright, the best-selling of author of books including The Moral Animal, Nonzero, and The Evolution of God. Those books covered subjects such as the evolutionary roots of human behavior, globalization and technologys positive influence on our relationships and lives, and how religious belief has become increasingly tolerant over time. His new book is called Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. It seeks to explain why Buddhism is so valuable, both to the world and to Wrights own life, and how its core insights reflect real truths about evolution and human psychology.

Below is an edited transcript of part of the show. You can find links to every episode here, and the entire interview with Wright is also below. Please subscribe to I Have to Ask wherever you get your podcasts.

Isaac Chotiner: I should say, in the interest of full disclosure, that my first paid job in journalism was at bloggingheads.tv, which you were the founder of.

Robert Wright: You realize youve just undermined the credibility of this entire conversation?

I didnt make enough money that Im in any sort of debt to you.

Thats true. Well, then, I may have the opposite problem in this conversation.

Can you just talk a little bit about what Buddhism is, and specifically, the variety of Buddhism that youre talking about in this book?

Well, first of all, theres religious Buddhism, which this book isnt about. This book is about what you might call the naturalistic or secular part of Buddhism. Its not about reincarnation, and its not about prayers, and so on. It is about the central claim of Buddhist philosophy, which is that the reason we suffer, and the reason we make other people suffer, is because we dont see the world clearly. Buddhist practice, including meditation, can be seen as a program for seeing the world more clearly.

You write in the book that you wondered if there was a way to put the actual truth about human nature and the human condition into a form that would not just identify and explain the illusions we labor under, but would help us liberate ourselves from them. One of the things that youre doing in the book is youre talking about these illusions, and youre explaining how science gives us some reason to understand why we have these illusions and that Buddhism and science, in this sense, coexist or teach us the same thing. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. I had written in the past about evolutionary psychology, and one thing that struck me is that actually, the human mind was not designed by natural selection to see the world clearly, per se. Thats not the bottom line. The bottom line is like: What psychological tendencies got the genes of our ancestors into subsequent generations? Often, [that] involved seeing the world clearly. You want to have a pretty clear visual picture of the world, generally, but not in all respects. If having a mind that is deceived or that has a distorted view of things will get genes into the next generation, then distortion will be built into the mind.

What would be an example of that?

Buddhism makes two really radical-seeming claims, when you drill down on what Buddhists mean by, We dont see the world clearly. One thing they mean is that we dont see ourselves clearly at all. In fact, Buddhism goes so far as to say, Were confused about the very existence of a self. There is a sense in which the self doesnt exist, which is pretty radical. Then, theres also a claim about how deluded we are about the world out there, that the people and the objects we see, we tend to have a distorted view of, we attribute to them a kind of essence that isnt there. Both of these claims may sound strong, but I think theres a lot more to be said for them than you might imagine. I think evolutionary psychology explains why we do suffer from these particular distortions.

One of those distortions concerns things such as our love of chocolate.

Chocolate, which I remain a fan of, as I was before I started meditating. Here, we get to another of the kind of central claims of Buddhism, very central, that in a way, is related to the other things Ive said about what Buddhism is. The idea that at the root of suffering was like, thirst, craving, for not just food, but for material attainments, for status, for sex, for everything that we crave. The illusion there is that lasting gratification will ensue, or even that it will endure for very long. It actually tends not to, right? We tend to pursue things as if they will be more deeply and enduringly gratifying than they are. The Buddha stressed their impermanence, that they would evaporate, and I think evolutionary psychology, again, explains why they evaporate.

Well, sure. Organisms have to be motivated, from natural selections point of view, to do things, to nourish themselves, to do whatever will get genes spread, like sex, but they cant be enduringly happy with these things, or they wouldnt sit around and get busy. Its a dog-eat-dog world out there. The fleetingness of pleasure is a product of natural selection. Were learning more about the brain chemistry of it, and I talk a little about that. Thats another example. The idea, in general, with mindfulness meditation, which is the kind I focus on in the book, is to, rather than be driven by your feelings, examine them and decide which feelings you think are offering good guidance and which arent.

If I really want to eat my second ice cream sundae of the day, you, in the book, you dont think that the way to do that is to repress it, necessarily, but to think about why I have that desire for it, and why, in fact, it may not make me that happy to have a second ice cream sundae. Is that correct?

Well, not just to think about it, and in fact, I came out of my study of evolutionary psychology very aware that knowing about the problem of human nature by itself doesnt solve the problem. Mindfulness meditation is a practice for getting better at seeing whats driving you and deciding consciously whether you want to be driven in exactly that way.

Righteous indignation is a powerful motivator. We just need to be mindful that our conception of whats righteous is warped.

Thats why, I think its interesting that Buddhism, a couple thousand years before Darwin, diagnosed the human predicament in ways that make a lot of sense in terms of evolutionary psychology and also came up with a prescription, a program that is not trivially easy to follow, by any means. Then again, its a difficult problem, but a program that I think works in a kind of pragmatic, therapeutic sense. Beyond that, it can take you into really, I think, interesting philosophical, and I would say, spiritual territory. Ive been on meditation retreats, a number of them, where you really just do nothing but meditation all day, no contact with the outside world. In that context, you can really go to some interesting places.

One of the things that you write about in your book, just to move off things like chocolate, is anger. You talk about why, in a certain way, we sometimes get pleasure from anger. In some incident of road rage or something, being angry really brings us some sort of joy. Again, its not long-lasting. I was wondering, in your own life, how do you feel like Buddhism has helped you with anger?

Im as prone to rage as the next person.

I worked for you, I know this.

I was actually ... I forget, was I a very well-behaved boss?

I contend that there are worse bosses. Some of them occupy very high positions, even as we speak.

Rage is an interesting example, because it, in a certain sense, made more sense in the environment of our evolution, a hunter-gatherer environment, than it makes now. The point of rage, from natural selections point of view, is to demonstrate that people cant mess with you. If you disrespect me, if you try to steal my mate, whatever, I will fight you. Even if I lose the fight, I have sent a signal to everyone in my social environment that I am willing to pay the price to make sure that people who exploit me suffer.

In a modern environment like road rageand there actually recently was an actual death by gunshot in a road rage caseit doesnt even make that much sense, because theres nobody whos ever going to see you again whos witnessing the rage. Theres no point at all in a demonstration of your resolve.

It's not going to help you on Tinder if you put on your profile that you just shot someone on the freeway, either.

No. There could be active downside, beyond the risk of getting shot. One thing an evolutionary perspective can do is highlight the absurdity of some of our feelings and so reinforce the idea that its worth learning how to examine them carefully and cultivating the ability to not be driven by them, should you choose not to.

How has that worked for you? You talk in the book about a former colleague who would make you angry sometimes to think about.

I do not mention that persons name.

I was just meditating once, this was during a retreat, and for some reason, he came to mind. You know, I dont have a lot of just bitter enemies. I would say there are two or three people in the category I would put this person in. I was meditating, and I dont know why I started thinking of him, but just suddenly I had a very charitable view. Suddenly, I was like, imagining him as a gangly, awkward adolescent, like, not fitting in on the playground, and developing the various tendencies that, in my view, are not entirely commendable, and in any event, have rubbed me the wrong way. It was just the first time Ive ever thought of this person in a charitable way. Thats some kind of testament to the kind of distance you can get on your more reflexive reactions to things.

How do you feel about anger and rage in terms of people who, say, are reading the newspaper now and seeing whats going on in the world? What do you think the appropriate response is?

Very interesting question. Im thinking about, and I may have done this by the time the podcast airs, who knows, trying to get the phrase mindful resistance off the ground. Maybe, I dont know, a podcast called Mindful Resistance that competes with yours or something, who knows. I, personally, think that the reaction to Trump is excessive, for tactical purposes, that I dont think we realize how often our outrage actually feeds his base and serves his goal of keeping support at least high enough that he cant get impeached, for example. I just think in a lot of ways, and Im as prone to this as the next person, clicking retweet on something that actually doesnt have much nutritional valueits a real challenge. Righteous indignation is a powerful motivator, and it can be harnessed for good. We just need to be mindful that our conception of whats righteous is kind of naturally warped. You need to very carefully examine, I think, your commitments, kind of, your value commitments or whatever, to make sure that youre not being led astray by the parts of human nature that tend to lead us astray, or that youre not just overreacting in a counterproductive way. It absolutely is a challenge.

To be honest, Ive known people who went so far down the meditative path that, although they had the same views that they had about social justice or whatever, the same views theyd ever had, still, they seemed a little more complacent than I thought was optimum. I think thats an actual danger. You want to think about it. I dont think Im anywhere near there. My problem, in general, with politics and ideology, is keeping my rage below the counterproductive level. I need meditation even to do that.

Do you think youve gotten a better sense of why people like Trump?

Three of my four siblings voted for Trump. On the other hand, Ive pretty much avoided talking to them about it, so I dont claim that Ive gotten a lot of insight there. I do think, there is the natural tendency to want to demonize the people on the other side of the fight. It is natural and easy to say, They are racist, they are stupid and so on, and I just think its more complicated than that. There are some true racists, but I think youre not serving your own cause when you succumb to the tendency to demonize people in that way, because I think if youre going to undermine Trumps support, youre going to need to understand what the source of that support is.

Thats a very pragmatically political way of looking at it, though, that if you want Trump to lose in 2020 that you have to reach some people who voted for him, and so on. What about from a larger sense of, just put aside the political consequences for a minute. Do you think that what we need is more sympathy for people who vote in different directions and so on?

One term I would use is cognitive empathy. Not necessarily feeling their pain or even caring about them, just understanding what the world looks like from their point of view. Again, I think meditation can really facilitate that. It can break down your natural tendency to want to dismiss or demonize them. Once you do that and understand what their situation in life is, and what their frustrations are, you may then feel deeply that, yeah, some of these problems they face should be addressed. Cognitive empathy may lead to sympathy, but I think the first step is just to see the situation clearly. Our brains naturally discourage that.

As Slates resident interrogator, Isaac Chotiner has tangled with Newt Gingrich and gotten personal with novelist Jonathan Franzen. Now hes bringing his pointed, incisive interview style to a weekly podcast in which he talks one-on-one with newsmakers, celebrities, and cultural icons.

You started this podcast by saying, Im not talking about religious Buddhism, per se. When you close the book, you talk about this very subject, and you ask, Is the type of Buddhism Im practicing in fact a religion? I was just wondering, how do you feel about it, sitting here today? Is the type of Buddhism youre practicing a form of religion?

It kind of feels like that to me. I certainly consider it spiritual in some reasonable definitions of that term. The thing I say in that chapter about religion is, William James said, Generically, religion certainly centrally involves the idea that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme interest lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to that order. Buddhism, set aside the religious part, but just philosophical Buddhism does posit the existence of a kind of order. A couple of kinds, but one kind is that there is a natural convergence between seeing the world more clearly, seeing the truth, becoming happier, and becoming a better person.

Thats three different things, right? Clarity of vision, happiness, and moral edification, becoming a better person. The assertion by Buddhist philosophy is that, conveniently, those are all the same thing. If you get on the path, including a meditative path, and seriously pursue it, you will be making progress on all three fronts. At least, they will tend to coincide. I think thats basically true. There are people of great meditative attainment who are bad people. Thats possible. But I think, by and large, this kind of amazing claim about the way the universe is set up, that you get kind of three for one, I think is true.

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Mindful Rage - Slate Magazine

In American Purgatory, Marc Trujillo captures what Americans witness every day: airports, big box stores, fast food restaurants. The ostensibly straightforward paintings actually tap into the uncanny this looks familiar, it feels familiar, but where is it? The paintings are not specific to any place, inhabiting instead a non-place, purgatory, perhaps. While we consume en masse, Trujillo takes snapshots, eerie reminders that we are all in this together, whether we realize it or not. American Purgatory opens Aug. 25 and runs through Oct. 7.

Sharing an opening date with Trujillo, Riccarda de Eccher's Montagnatackles the sublime, taking the form of mountain peaks painted with watercolors in different scales and from varying perspectives. De Eccher's snow-peaked Italian Alps (the artist is an Italian native) are cropped, so we are not looking at a complete landscape, but instead a fraction of a scene, a scene, like Trujillo's, that could be found any where, recognizable to anyone.

The two exhibits run concurrently, and the opening reception for both begins at 6:30 p.m. Fri. Aug 25 with refreshments from Monza and ICEBOX.

As part of SEA CHANGE, a collaboration between the Halsey and the South Carolina Aquarium, the art institute presents a series of exhibitions and programs to raise awareness about the world's plastic waste problem. From Oct. 20-Dec. 7, artists Aurora Robson and Chris Jordan will present exhibits addressing environmental issues, and the deleterious effects humans have on the land and the sea.

Robson's site-specific installation, The Tide is High, is a new body of work for the New York-based sculptor. The inorganic plastic materials Robson uses become organic as she manipulates their properties so that they take on ethereal shapes, reminiscent of sea creatures. Robson's work reminds us that whether we're on the coast or landlocked, our daily actions affect the world's water.

Chris Jordan will present his newest photo series, Olympic, a collection of high-res photos that convey the vastness of the world's oceans, alongside Midway, a collection featuring images taken at Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands that, although 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, are still being damaged by human action. Even baby albatrosses are not safe the picture at right shows the plastic found in their stomachs.

The opening reception for both artists' exhibits is Fri. Oct. 20 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. with refreshments provided by Whole Foods and ICEBOX.

Artist talks and lectures On Sat. Aug. 26 at 2 p.m., de Eccher will hold an artist talk and gallery walk-through of her exhibit, Montagna.

Sat. Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. Robson holds a talk and walk-through on The Tide is High.

The S.C. Aquarium presents a lecture, "The Tide is High: When Art and Action Collide," onsite Mon. Oct 23 starting at 6:30 p.m. In this lecture, Robson discusses her work as both an artist and activist. The event is free for students and $10 for non-students.

In connection with his exhibit, artist and filmmaker Chris Jordan hosts a lecture, "Encounter with the Albatross,"at the Sottile Theatre Tues. Oct 24 at 7 p.m. Jordan will describe his travels to Midway Atoll and the plight of the native albatrosses he encountered.

Film screenings

Wed. Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Simon Center for the Arts Recital Hall, filmmaker Paul Tschinkel will present a screening of two programs from his documentary series ART/new york. The programs include a 1987 interview with Louise Bourgeois, an envelope pushing sculptor, and a 1994 interview with Kiki Smith, a West-German born American artist known for her visceral and innovative work. A Q & A with Tschinkel follows the screening.

Wed. Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. the Charleston Music Hall will screen the premiere of Jordan's film ALBATROSS, a documentary that follows Jordan to Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands that sits amid the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

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The Halsey's 2017 fall programs highlight human behavior and its effects on the environment - Charleston City Paper

NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of eye trackers is expected to reach 756 thousand units by 2023. The quality of the hardware is important in some of the eye-tracking-based applications, such as assistive communication, AR/VR, and automotive vehicles.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05040086/Eye-Tracking-Market-by-Offering-Tracking-Type-Application-Assistive-Communication-Human-Behavior-Market-Research-AR-VR-Vehicles-Vertical-Retail-Healthcare-Government-Automotive-Consumer-Electronics-and-Geography-Global-Forecast-to.html

There is a considerable improvement in the features offered by the eye-tracking hardware in recent years on account of increased R&D expenditure by the industry leaders. The price erosion is also expected to contribute to the increasing adoption of eye-tracking hardware across various applications. Extensive automation in automotive and industrial sectors is expected to reduce human intervention, thereby limiting the scope for the growth of the eye tracking market.

"With increasing spending from large FMCG companies and retailers, eye tracking market for retail and advertisement vertical expected to grow at significant rate during forecast period"

The saturating retail market in North America and Europe, and the budding retail market in APAC have prompted large FMCG companies to increase their spending for gaining insights into consumer behavior. There is an increasing number of eye-tracking-based research companies, and market research services offered by these companies rely on eye-tracking technology. This trend is expected to grow over the next few years, impacting the growth of the eye tracking market.

"Automotive and transportation vertical expected to adopt eye-tracking technology at fastest rate during forecast period"

The safety aspect in the automotive and transportation vertical is driving the adoption of eye-tracking technology in this vertical. The trend is more prominent in North America and Europe where the automotive regulatory environment is more stringent. Automotive vendors based out of these regions have increased the deployment of eye-tracking technology in their vehicles. The large automotive sector provides a huge growth opportunity for the emerging eye tracking market.

"Eye tracking market in APAC to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period"

The growth of the eye tracking market in APAC can be attributed to the growing spending power of the consumers in the region, and increased investment in retail, healthcare, automotive, and consumer electronics verticals. China and Japan are the most prominent countries in APAC driving the growth of the eye tracking market. A number of automobile and consumer device manufacturers are based out of these countries. The eye tracking market in these industries, along with the growing retail sector, is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period.

In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews have been conducted with key industry experts.

The breakup of the profile of primary participants is given below: By Company Type: Tier 1 15 %, Tier 2 20%, and Tier 3 65% By Designation: C-Level Executives 50%, Directors 30%, and Others 20% By Region: North America 45%, Europe 35%, APAC 15%, and RoW 5%

The major players profiled in the report are Tobii AB (Sweden), Sensomotoric Instruments GmbH (Germany), SR Research Ltd. (Canada), Seeing Machines (Australia), EyeTracking, Inc. (US), PRS IN VIVO (US), Smart Eye AB (Sweden), LC Technologies, Inc. (US), Ergoneers GmbH (Germany), and Eyetech Digital Systems, Inc. (US).

Research CoverageThe geographic segmentation in the report covers 4 major regionsNorth America, Europe, APAC, and RoW. The application segment covers the market size for assistive communication; human behavior and market research; and others. The tracking type segment covers remote eye tracking and mobile eye tracking. The eye tracking market based on offerings is segmented into hardware; software; and research and consulting services.

The market segmentation by vertical covers retail and advertisement; healthcare and research labs; consumer electronics; government, defense, and aerospace; automotive and transportation; and others.

Key Benefits of Buying the ReportThe report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:1. This report segments the eye tracking market comprehensively and provides the closest market sizes of segments and subsegments across verticals and regions. 2. The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. 3. This report would help stakeholders better understand their competitors and gain more insights to enhance their position in the business. The "competitive landscape" chapter includes competitor ecosystem, strength of product portfolio, business strategy excellence, new product developments, partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions in the eye tracking market. Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05040086/Eye-Tracking-Market-by-Offering-Tracking-Type-Application-Assistive-Communication-Human-Behavior-Market-Research-AR-VR-Vehicles-Vertical-Retail-Healthcare-Government-Automotive-Consumer-Electronics-and-Geography-Global-Forecast-to.html

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eye-tracking-market-by-offering-tracking-type-application-assistive-communication-human-behavior--market-research-arvr-vehicles-vertical-retail-healthcare-government-automotive-consumer-electronics-and-geography---300498665.html

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Eye Tracking Market by Offering, Tracking Type, Application (Assistive Communication, Human Behavior & Market ... - Markets Insider

Solar energy is the future, says the president of Californias Public Utilities Commission. The only question is how to get people to realize the future can be right now.

Solar is not a boutique product anymore, its cheaper than just about any other fossil fuel on the market, commission president Michael Picker tells Inverse. And one way we bring the cost down is enlisting people to step in and dance with the grid.

Dancing with the grid means charging electric cars during the day, when the grid is brimming with solar energy. It also means generally being cognizant about energy use in homes. One-quarter of energy use in households is being gulped by things that arent being used, but are simply plugged in, like toasters and rarely-used televisions.

Picker wants every Californian to become a part of the states modern energy infrastructure. The technology has arrived, works, and will be an integral part of Californias mission to quit using fuel for power.

Peoples behavior trumps everything, says Picker. Its valuable to get people to stop being passive subjects in this dynamic world and provide more reliability on the grid. The solar eclipse shows people how to do it.

Californians will get a chance to adapt to the grid on August 21, when the coming solar eclipse will darken skies in the usually sun-drenched state. This will dramatically reduce the output from solar farms, which produce a quarter of Californias renewable energy. Foreseeing the cut in energy production, the California Public Utilities Commission is asking folks to turn up the thermostat, switch to LED lights, and not charge electronics during the dimming event. The campaign, called Do Your Thing For The Sun, reveals the importance of peoples behavior in making solar energy a resilient, reliable energy source even more so than burgeoning battery technologies, which could supply power when the solar farms cant.

For two hours, the moon will block up to three-quarters of the suns rays, deflecting that valuable light back into space. These darkened skies mean a loss of 5,600 Megawatts enough to power 900,000 homes. If Californians dont reduce their energy use, the state will have to ignite backup fuel-burning engines to provide adequate power.

This energy-saving campaign, however, prompted Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who in 2014 directed his company to begin constructing the 1.9 million square foot battery-producing Gigafactory in the Nevada Desert, to respond to an article about the campaign with a succinct tweet: Batteries! Musks implication is that Californias renewable future requires batteries to provide backup power when solar farms arent generating enough electricity.

Musk, a battery and electric car innovator, has obvious incentives in promoting state investment in battery projects. But Picker also acknowledges that batteries are important for Californias energy future, noting that theyre small, can fit in neighborhoods, and that the state plans to have 1.3 Gigawatts of battery storage capacity by 2020. (One Gigawatt can light 100 million LED bulbs or charge 12,500 Nissan Leafs, according to the Department of Energy.)

Still, Picker says peoples actions, not batteries, will ultimately enable the states renewable energy future, a future the California government is hell-bent on achieving. California is legally bound to produce a whopping 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, which doesnt include hydroelectric power generated from rivers pouring through dams. Picker says that if hydroelectricity is included in the equation, the state could achieve 70 percent renewable energy use by 2025 or 2026.

And the current governor, Jerry Brown, is fully intent on abandoning fossil fuels. While arguing for a climate cap and trade bill (which passed) earlier this month, the 79-year old Brown made it clear that renewable energy in which solar farms will loom large will be a crucial part of Californias future. This isnt about some cockamamie legacy. This isnt for me, Im going to be dead. Its for you, and its damn real, he said.

Battery facilities will still spring up around California as part of Californias grand renewable energy effort, and theyre likely to look similar to Elon Musks local battery projects in the state. In January, Tesla completed an energy storage facility for the utility Southern California Edison in just 90 days. The facility is capable of storing enough energy for 2,500 homes.

But human behavior, not battery technology, will ultimately make the worlds sixth largest economy run largely on the sun, says Picker. Its an entirely different creature than weve had in our electric supply and we have to think about it differently, he says.

Read more:
Human Behavior 'Trumps' Battery Tech in Solar Energy Future - Inverse

ByStephanie Desmon

The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs has received a five-year award with a $300 million ceiling from the United States Agency for International Development to lead its social and behavior change programs around the world.

Breakthrough-ACTION will use evidence-based tools to encourage people in developing countries to adopt healthy behaviors, from using modern contraceptive methods to sleeping under bed nets to being tested for HIV.

Susan Krenn

Executive director, CCP

Much of the work will harness the power of communicationfrom mass media campaigns to TV and radio dramas to simple posters in a health clinicto inspire long-lasting change. It will be led by CCP, which is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"American security is advanced by supporting social and behavioral interventions, which improve health and promote social stability for people living in low- and middle-income countries," says Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School. "Such evidence-based, innovative, and creative interventions should be part and parcel of every international health development program. This new award emphasizes the value of investing in social and behavior change programs."

The program builds on a prior five-year, $144 million, 31-country project called the Health Communications Capacity Collaborative, or HC3, and is expected to be double the size.

CCP will partner with:

Breakthrough-ACTION will also be supported in the field by ActionSprout, the International Center for Research on Women, and Human Network International.

"Harmful social norms and behavioral challenges stand in the way of better health, education, and livelihood for far too many people around the globe," says Susan Krenn, CCP's executive director. "With this investment, we have an incredible opportunity to test and scale new approaches, increase efficiency, and to serve more people. We can't wait to get started."

The Breakthrough-ACTION agreement was effective July 21, with work expected to begin immediately. While the exact geographic scope of the project has not yet been finalized, CCP expects to work in dozens of countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. CCP will build on previous successes in some countries and establish new partnerships in others.

While communication is at the heart of Breakthrough-ACTION, the project will also use other behavioral science approaches such as human-centered design and behavioral economics to create social and behavior change at the global, regional, and country level. CCP will use the expertise it gained during the recent West African Ebola outbreak to do similar emergency response work if needed.

Krenn says the award reflects new understandings about what works in international development.

"People are now appreciating that you need to do more than just build a health clinic and expect people to come," she says. "You have to motivate them, give them a reason to go. People need the information to make decisions for themselves and their families, especially when you're asking them to do something that isn't common practice such as sleeping under bed nets or accessing modern contraception. This kind of work provides the missing link, helping to motivate people to make better health decisions."

USAID administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in 100 countries worldwide.

David Holtgrave, professor and chair of the Bloomberg School's Department of Health, Behavior and Society, says the work of CCP shows the vital role behavior change can play in saving lives.

"Too often, when people think of development, they think only of food aid or drugs for health clinics and the like," he says. "What our work proves is that communication is an essential part of any comprehensive, effective development program."

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Johns Hopkins center receives $300M from USAID to encourage healthy behaviors in developing countries - The Hub at Johns Hopkins