idealawg

New dates for Contemplative Practices for Lawyers retreat in Santa Fe

We have changed the dates because the place we wanted to hold the retreat was not available on the original dates. I am happy to say we are now set for November 13 through 15. We are working on the description and want to have it out very soon so people will have plenty of time to take advantage of the early bird rate.

For those of you who did not see the original post, here's what is happening . . .

On that weekend, Scott Rogers and I will be leading a retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico, titled "Contemplative Practices for Lawyers." As in all of Scott's programs as well as mine, the practices and materials we use will be grounded in neuroscience. And we will be incorporating some of the treasures of the unique state of New Mexico and of Santa Fe, "The City Different." This program is going to be unforgettable. Scott and I have had many conversations in planning and are truly excited.

Grit, so important these days, is the focus of current edition of IN CHARACTER: A JOURNAL OF EVERYDAY VIRTUES

The Spring 2009 edition of In Character is the Grit Issue. I did not read all the articles but I am very glad I read those I did. Click on over and sample what you see. Tenacity, perseverance, hard work are all important and you will learn more about those states and traits in this Journal.

In Character has focused on other virtues in past editions. Examples:

• Courage
• Justice
• Purpose
• Loyalty

Click to see all the back editions of In Character.

Appreciate the work of Steven Keeva? Here's your chance to say why

The ABA is bringing out a 10th anniversary edition of Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life; I am so very pleased. The editors are seeking testimonials for this special edition. If you have read the book and want to contribute a testimonial, send it to Erin Nevius. If you have not read this terrific book, you still have time as the testimonials are needed by mid-September.

New York City schedule for Denver-based BUBS the musical finally available!

For those of you who will be attending one of the performances of Bubs in New York (more about the musical here), the schedule has finally been announced:

• Saturday 8/15 @ 6:00p – 7:29p
• Wednesday 8/19 @ 5:00p – 6:29p
• Saturday 8/22 @ 9:30p – 10:59p
• Sunday 8/23 @ 9:45p – 11:14p

The venue in New York City:

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
(Rivington & Delancey Streets)

Little Red Riding Hood was no victim: The wolf was framed! More on storytelling in the law

In the new edition of Plaintiff, Diane Wyzga, author of one of the included articles [PDF] tells us about Little Red Riding Hood, that wolf, and lawyers as storytellers. Excerpt:

The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a cautionary tale. The Brothers Grimm wrote it to warn children, especially little girls, about whom to avoid. Then, like now, the wolf was seen as an animal to be feared and destroyed. So, it’s no surprise that the Brothers Grimm chose this creature as the metaphor to make sure children understood what form danger took. ...

Lawyers, too, tell stories. Often we tell our clients’ stories pretty much the same way each time. We begin at the beginning and end at the end. We stack up the facts and hope that the lawyer with the most facts wins. We hope that the decision maker writes the ending we want to the story we’ve told because our stack of facts towers over our opponent’s stack. But what if the wolf was framed? What if there is another way to tell the story? And what if that approach gives you, the skillful lawyer, an advantage over the old way?

Click to read the rest of "The Wolf Was Framed!" {PDF].

Now you can move objects with your mind: Wishing for a lawyer who writes good sci fi

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal Venture Dispatch blog carried a story that I found very intriguing! It's title is fun: "NeuroSky’s Brain Wave Tech Helps People Use The Force." Excerpt:

Star Wars may have been science fiction, but moving objects using nothing but one’s thoughts is now a reality.

NeuroSky Inc., backed by $7 million over two venture rounds from WR Hambrecht + Co., Japan-based Marubeni Corp. and Taiwan-based TUVC, has developed a technology and headset that people can use to control a videogame, and users soon may be able to do many more things without lifting a finger.

...

The technology is based on electroencephalography medical technology, which has been around for

Music sure is in the spotlight lately: 3 articles on its effect on us, on our hearts

I see that this month's Scientific American Mind has an article on music. An excerpt from "Why Music Moves Us":

Emerging evidence also indicates that music brings out predictable responses across cultures and among people of widely varying musical or cognitive abilities. Even newborn infants and people who cannot discern pitch enjoy music’s emotional effect. “Certainly music seems to be the most direct form of emotional communication,” opines renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks of Columbia University, author of the recent book Musicophilia (Knopf, 2007). “It really seems to be as important a part of human life and communication as language and gesture.”

At MedlinePlus we learn that "Music Can Make the Heart Beat Faster." Excerpt:

Loud music made hearts beat faster and blood pressure go up, while softer passages lowered both heart rates and blood pressure, a new study shows.

It's the latest word on how music affects the cardiovascular system, from researchers at Pavia

Are you thriving? If not, you may want to take a look at how you see time

What's the way you see time have to do with thriving? A lot according to Philip Zimbardo. (Yes, the Philip Zimbardo of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment.) He explained at the recent First World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia. From "Psychology of thriving" (Philadelphia Inquirer):

Facts. Emotions. Logic. If you ask most people what they base their decisions on, this is the type of answer you're likely to get. But Zimbardo thinks it's not the whole story - or even most of it.

"The main thing that determines your decisions," he said, "is something you're unaware of - your perspective on time."

Imagine going out to lunch with co-workers and deciding whether to have that second martini. You could approach the decision by considering what happened last time you drank too much at lunch, or by envisioning how it would affect your work performance later in the day. You could focus on how much fun it would be right now. Or you might figure that you never get much done in the afternoon anyway, so why not?

These four responses are typical of distinct time perspectives: past, future, present-hedonistic, and present-fatalistic.

Zimbardo and his colleagues created a time-perspective survey and gave it to thousands

Interview of Richard Davidson and article by Daniel Goleman: Both on how you can make changes using your brain's plasticity

The Biology of Meditation and Joy (Radio station KUER in Salt Lake)

From the station site:

What would it take to make you truly happy? Love? Money? Success? If those are your answers, you may be looking in all the wrong places. Richard Davidson is among the world's leading brain researchers and he says that compassion and kindness and yes, happiness are all skills that can be enhanced with practice.

"Yes, You Can: New research suggests we can build our willpower" by Daniel Goleman (SharpBrains)

Excerpt:

[Richard] Davidson's research these days focuses on neuroplasticity—how our experience shapes the brain throughout life. One surprise: though most of us learned that we have a fixed number of brain cells when we are born, and that we lose them steadily until we die, brain science now tells us the brain makes about 10,000 new cells every day, and that they migrate to where they are needed. Once there, each cell makes around 10,000 connections to other brain cells over the successive four months.

Davidson's research finds that the left prefrontal cortex—the brain's executive center located just behind the forehead—is a key site for helping us build willpower. Our plans and goals hatch here, and impulses are executed via this zone. There is a neural circuit in the prefrontal cortex that inhibits emotional impulse, and can be strengthened by a range of methods.

This new PBS documentary on music and the brain is only available until July 7

Better watch "Musical Minds" soon! From the PBS Web page:

Can the power of music make the brain come alive? Throughout his career Dr. Oliver Sacks, neurologist and acclaimed author, whose book Awakenings was made into a Oscar-nominated feature film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, has encountered myriad patients who are struggling to cope with debilitating medical conditions. While their ailments vary, many have one thing in common: an appreciation for the therapeutic effects of music. NOVA follows four individuals—two of whom are Sacks's case studies—and even peers into Sacks's own brain, to investigate music's strange, surprising, and still unexplained power over the human mind. (Have a question for Dr. Sacks? Ask away.)

According to Sacks's latest book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, anatomists cannot identify the brain of a visual artist, writer, or mathematician—but they can recognize the brain of a professional musician. Music affects more parts of our brains than language does—clearly humans are musical animals. What can music tell us about our minds? And what can our minds tell us about music? ...

Click here to watch "Musical Minds."

Note: Watch the video of Dr. Sacks discussing music and the brain as he is interviewed by Jon Stewart.

Legislature Passes Historic Audit of California Family Court System

From the press release:

Stories of court-ordered child abuse inspire unanimous support

After 17 months of delays and procedural hurdles, California's Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) yesterday unanimously passed a request by Senator Mark Leno and numerous co-authors to audit the California Family Court system with respect to the use of court appointees in child custody disputes.
 
"We applaud Senator Leno's leadership in rectifying this critical miscarriage of justice, since court appointees have profited off of these tragic cases for far too long with virtually no oversight or accountability," said the Center for Judicial Excellence's Kathleen Russell.
 
The request was prompted by ongoing complaints from across the state that children are routinely being forced by family courts to live with parents they've accused of physical or sexual abuse.

In the press release are links to more information including a video of the hearing.

Hat tip: justice’s posterous.

Our brain is a music box and no one knows why

On a day of patriotic songs, I hope you enjoy this article about the relationship between human brings and music. I found it engaging and engrossing but then I have been thinking about music a lot recently.

From "Magic Flute: Primal Find Sings of Music's Mystery" (Wall Street Journal):

Parrots dance to the beat. Sex-starved mice sing for love, new research shows. But true music, from rap to Rachmaninoff, is a unique human invention that resonates in us all, striking neural chords of memory, emotion, motor control, timing and meaning -- and transforming us in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand.

"Music is biologically powerful," says neurobiologist Aniruddh Patel at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, Calif. "Every culture ever discovered has music, no matter what else they may lack."

By any measure, our brain is a music box. Yet no one knows why.

...

To Dr. Patel, music-making was a conscious innovation, like the invention of writing or the control of fire. "It is something that we humans invented that then transformed human life," he says. "It has a profound impact on how individual humans experience the world, by connecting us through space and time to other minds."

There is no denying its power to change our mood -- or our brain structure.

Click to read the rest of the article.

Speaking in Congress, Rep. Tim Ryan touts mindfulness and meditation

Tim Ryan, a Congressman from Ohio who earned his JD from Franklin Pierce Law Center, is an advocate of meditation. Click to learn more about his meditation practice.

At this link (Cleveland.com), you will see him in Congress listing some of the benefits of mindfulness, including emotion regulation, stress reduction, and better attention and focus. He does so while asking HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the role of meditation in health care reform.

I think it should play a big role; I bet that opinion of mine does not surprise regular readers, does it?

Blog Glob: Is this the future bookstore?: Machine downloads books from a massive database while the customer waits

Excerpt:

The Northshire Bookstore, in quaint Manchester Center, Vt., has all the classic trappings: exposed beams, wood tables stacked with hardcover bestsellers, comfortable leather chairs nestled into alcoves.

And then there’s “Lurch,’’ a hulking jumble of machinery that is often groaning and shuddering in a corner behind the sales counter.

Officially known as the Espresso Book Machine, Lurch, as the employees call it, is a “print on demand’’ setup the size of a meat freezer that creates books for customers while they wait.

The publishing world is closely following the experiment at Northshire, the first independent bookstore in the United States to install the clattering book machine. If Northshire can make money printing books downloaded from massive online catalogs, it will show how small brick-and-mortar bookshops might be able to match the overwhelming variety of products offered by a giant online retailer like Amazon.com.

Click to read the rest of "Is this the future bookstore?" (Boston Globe).