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Blog Glob: Divorce is costly. The settlement need not be.

Excerpt:

[T]hree underlying problems will remain – and it is these problems, and not the adjustments that might be needed in alimony or custody statutes, that make divorce a disaster for many families.

First, the cost of litigating alimony and child custody issues imposes an unmanageable burden on many couples and their children.

Second, choosing to litigate these issues means relinquishing control to courts over what we hold most dear – our children and our financial survival.

Third, divorce litigation almost invariably ratchets up antagonisms to a point where children get caught in the crossfire.

Electing to use more effective tools for dispute resolution, such as mediation and the collaborative law process – a decision that any divorcing couple can make – addresses all three of these problems and can lead to better outcomes in both alimony and custody conflicts. Here’s why.

Click to read the rest of "Divorce is costly. The settlement need not be." (Christian Science Monitor).

A Judge's Guide to Neuroscience: A Concise Introduction

The Guide [pdf] was produced by the University of California at Santa Barbara's SAGE Center. Acknowledgments from the Guide:

This publication grew out of the work of the Law and Neuroscience Project, supported by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Project, consisting of a wide variety of leading scientists, philosophers, and legal academics, including judges, began its work in June 2007 and will conclude the first phase of research and publication next year. We thank Andrew S. Mansfield for his work in editing this collection which was developed by Michael S. Gazzaniga and the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Contributors are

• Floyd E. Bloom
• Howard L. Fields
• Michael S. Gazzaniga
• Scott Grafton
• Kent Kiehl
• Helen Mayberg
• Read Montague
• Louis J. Ptacek
• Marcus Raichle
• Adina Roskies
• Anthony Wagner

H/T: The Law and Neuroscience Blog.

Not as Web Savvy as You Think: Young people give Google, other top brand search results too much credibility

News release (Northwestern University):

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Google it. That's what many college students do when asked to read an excerpt of a play for class, write a resume or find the e-mail address of a politician.

They trust Google so much that a Northwestern University study has found many students only click on websites that turn up at the top of Google searches to complete assigned tasks. If they don't use Google, researchers found that students trust other brand-name search engines and brand-name websites to lead them to information.

The study was published by the International Journal of Communication.

"Many students think, ‘Google placed it number one, so, of course it's credible,'" said Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern. "This is potentially tricky because Google doesn't rank a site by its credibility."

In the published, study 102 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago sat at computers with researchers. Each student was asked to bring up the page that's usually on their screen when they start using the Web.

The activity on their screens was captured on video as researchers gave the students a variety of hypothetical information-seeking tasks to perform online. Time and again, researchers watched students navigate to brand-name search engines--usually Google--and to brand-name websites to find information. Researchers also asked students questions about websites they chose.

After using Google to get to a website, this interaction occurred between a researcher and a study participant:

Researcher: "What is this website?"

Student: "Oh, I don't know. The first thing that came up."

"Search engine rankings seem extremely important," Hargittai said. “We

"Housing upgrade shrinks tumors in mice with cancer": A clue about cancer in humans?

Interesting study about the possible roles social connection, mental state, and stress may play in health.

News release (Eurekalert):

When mice with cancer get a boost in their social life and an upgrade in living conditions, their tumors shrink, and their cancers more often go into spontaneous remission. Reported in the July 9th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, these findings offer powerful new evidence of the critical role that social connection and an individual's mental state, may play in cancer.

"Animals' interaction with the environment has a profound influence on the growth of cancer – more than we knew was possible," said Matthew During of The Ohio State University.

It's not as if the animals' usual housing was all that bad. Laboratory mice are typically housed in groups of five or so, where they can have all the food they want and play all day. The enriched environments in the new study expanded living groups to 15 or 20 animals and provided them with more space and more things to play with and do – including toys, hiding places and running wheels.

When During and his colleague Lei Cao placed mice with cancer in that enriched environment, the animals tumor mass shrunk by an impressive 77 percent and the volume by 43 percent, the researchers report. Five percent of mice that had been given cancer showed no evidence of the disease after three weeks in their new home. That never happened in control animals kept in standard housing.

During says that the more complex social dimension in the new living arrangements was apparently key. The same improvements weren't seen in animals who only exercised more, so physical activity in and of itself wasn't the answer.

The animals did show lower levels of a hormone produced by fat called leptin, indicative of a significant shift in metabolism. Their immune systems also appeared to be "ramped up a bit," During said.

During and his colleague ultimately traced the effect to an axis from the brain to fat driven by an increase in a growth factor expressed in the hypothalamus called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Further study showed that manipulations designed to increase BDNF levels also reduced tumor burden. In animals lacking BDNF, the benefits of an enriched environment evaporated.

The researchers say the findings lend favor to the view that low levels of stress, or certain kinds of stress, can be beneficial. "A lot of people think stress is bad,

Intergenerational relations: Two studies for those of you working with cross-generational conflict in families

Two recent studies have looked at patterns of relationships between parents and adult children. The researchers in both studies grouped relationships into four categories: amicable, disharmonious, detached, and ambivalent. Below are the abstracts of the studies, and an excerpt from an article about the most recent piece of research.

"Emotional relationship quality of adult children with ageing parents: on solidarity, conflict and ambivalence" (European Journal of Ageing):

Abstract:

Emotions towards a relationship partner provide relevant and specific information about relationship quality. Based on this assumption the present study was performed to identify different types of emotional relationship quality of middle-aged adult children with their ageing parents. This was done by cluster analytic procedures in a sample of 1,208 middle-aged adult children (482 men, 726 women). Using ratings of positive and negative emotions towards their mother and father as grouping variables, the same four-cluster solution emerged for both the child–mother relationship and the child–father relationship. Clusters were labelled as amicable, disharmonious, detached and ambivalent relationships. Results showed that especially amicable relationships clearly prevailed followed by ambivalent, detached and disharmonious relationships. Clusters differed significantly with respect to gender of adult child, willingness to support, expected parental support and

Blog Glob: "Law School Tenure in Danger?"

Excerpt:

The American Bar Association is moving ahead with changes in its accreditation system that faculty members fear could erode tenure protections for many professors and further weaken job security for clinical faculty members, many of whom don't have tenure to start with.

A special committee of the ABA last week released the latest version of proposed guidelines on academic freedom -- just days before an ABA committee met Saturday to discuss (but not alter) the draft language. In the weeks before the draft was released, many faculty leaders had urged the ABA panel not to do the two key things its draft does:

...

While publicly the ABA leaders pushing for change say that they are not against tenure or law professors, supporters of tenure have noted a steady stream of criticism of law professors that emerges whenever

Dhaka Weaves: An event in Denver highlighting women's entrepreneurship and leadership

From the invitation:

Please join us, and bring a friend.

We are delighted to have Susanne Jalbert join us for this event and share the Dhaka Weave story.

Dhaka Weaves [link takes you to a short video] is devoted to women learning how to help themselves through entrepreneurship and leadership. Women of Nepal inherited an age-old tradition of rare textile creation and quality craftsmanship.  All Tewa Tea proceeds benefit Dhaka weavers.

A company wholly owned and managed by women, Dhaka Weaves preserves traditional Nepali weaving. Economically disadvantaged rural and urban weavers

New issue of MINDFULNESS now available

Articles from the second edition of Mindfulness (SpringerLink) may now be read on the 'net. Articles include:

• "Mindful Parenting in Mental Health Care"
• "Mindfulness for Psychologists: Paying Kind Attention to the Perceptible"
• "Does Mindfulness Meditation Enhance Attention? A Randomized Controlled Trial"
• "Mindfulness as Presence"
• Book Review: "Ronald D. Siegel: The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems"

Allen Gibson King: R.I.P.

My ex-stepfather died last week. Although I sent a card, it would have arrived after his death, because I had no idea his dying would happen so quickly. Last Monday evening, I learned that his lung cancer had recurred after many years, and had metastasized to many parts of his body. By the time I found out about his illness, he lived only a few hours more.

I had seen him early last year when he attended my mother's memorial service in Modesto, and later the "party" at her house. He knew that old house well as he had spent much time there for the decade or so when he and my mom were married. Sometimes they stayed in Modesto, sometimes in San Francisco at his apartment at 1835 Vallejo, and sometimes at the condo my mom owned back then in Bear Valley, Alpine County, CA.

Coincidentally, not even a week before my ex-stepfather died, I had commented to my guy that Al never seemed to age; when I last saw him in Modesto, he looked to me to be the same age as when he and mom were married, even though the marriage had ended years ago. The man had a good sense of humor and a huge attraction to fun,

Alisa Franzone-Davis teaches people how to eat: Another story of life after law

As most of my friends know, I have been following a raw-food cuisine for the last 49 days, and have been learning much. I have a blog about my fun adventure here: RawRag.

In my online travels, I learned of a woman who used to practice law and is now teaching people a new kind of practice; she gives classes in the preparation and benefits of raw food. Her bio begins:

Alisa [Franzone-Davis] graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University in New York City and from The University of Miami School of Law and subsequently practiced law for thirteen years. Although she was living a financially successful life, she was not living her passion. As she continued to work long stressful hours, she became ill.

Click to read more of her story.

At her RawWoman Web site, you can see the class schedule, and learn much more about what Franzone-Davis is doing post-law. From my years of living in Santa Fe, I know the area where her Crystal Mesa Farm is located; like much of New Mexico, that area is unique in its beauty.

Click to read other life-after-law stories.

Image credit: RawWoman.