Thursday, May 14th, 2026, 7:00-8:15 pm at The Crawford (474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena 91105).
Get tickets priced from FREE to $25.
Join Molly Bloom, host and creator of the kids' podcast company Brains On Universe, for a live panel about puberty. Featured guests include
Dr. Cara Natterson, pediatrician, author, and founder of Less Awkward, a company designed to make puberty a less awkward and more joyful experience
Dr. Christopher Miller, a clinical psychologist and the founder of The Boys’ Institute for Growth (BIG), which educates boys about puberty and facilitates healthy conversations between boys and their trusted adults.
The evening will feature a moderated discussion followed by a live Q&A designed to help parents prepare kids ages 7–11 for the changes ahead. More
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is an annual observance adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to promote equal participation of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields [1].
Did the world forget all the female greats in herstory (his-story)? There was Kwan Yin (Buddhist Goddess of Compassion); Scheherazade; Asherah (the Jews' God's wife); Ven. Khema and Ven. Uppalavanna (the Buddha's chief female disciples); the world's first Buddhist nun (the Buddha's mother Maha Pajapati); Prince Siddhartha's wife -- who became an enlightened Buddhist nun and the top debater in the land -- found hidden all over ancient Buddhist texts by many and varied names: Rahulamata (Rāhula's mother), Bhaddakaccā (Lucky One), Yasodharā (Graceful), Bimbā Devī (Princess Bimba), Bimbā-sundarī (Bimba the Beautiful), Bhadda-kaccānā (Lucky Kaccana), Subhaddakā; though Mahayana Buddhist texts favor the epithet "Yasodharā" the daughter of Dandapānī, she was born Bimbā, and names like Yosadhāri were descriptive epithets applied to her, which later became regarded as names. It is also possible that in Gautama's court there was a Yasodharā, daughter of Dandapānī, and that there later came to be a confusion of names (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names).
The U.N. General Assembly passed the resolution in 2015 [2], which proclaimed February 11th as the commemoration of the observance [3].
A theme is selected annually as a focus point for gender equality [or parity] in science [4].
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is implemented annually at the U.N. Headquarters by the Royal Academy of Science International Trust in partnership with UNESCO and UN Women to promote the role of women and girls in scientific fields and celebrate those who have been successful in the field [5]. More
Sheherazade (mnemonic "She Her a Sadie," Scheherazade, Shahrazad, Šahrzād) is the legendary narrator and central character framing One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic ألف وواحد ليلة, Romanized Alf wa waħid layla).
This collection of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African folktales compiled in Arabic between the 8th-14th centuries is a powerhouse in the West, where its origins are deemphasized.
Buddhism came out of the Middle East, not today's geopolitical morass dubbed the "Middle" East but rather Gandhara [ancient Afghani-stan, Saka-stan, Paki-stan, ir "Kapilavatthu-stan," the mahajanapada of Gandhara at the foothills of the Hindu Kush, which are part of the greater Himalayan range, in Central Asia, northwestern frontier of what later became the Empire of "India" united by Buddhist King Ashoka, but was not yet India or Hindu-stan and no longer Maha Bharata), and the Buddha was a Saka (Indo-Scythian, Shakya, Sakya] in the ancient Kingdom of Magadha now the modern Indian state of Bihar. Note that nowhere is Nepal mentioned because, according to Dr. Ranajit Pal, author of Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander, that seems to be where the Buddha's hometown/homeland was RELOCATED for religio-historical, cultural, and geopolitical purposes after Islamic invasions overrunning the Near East and "Middle" East, and the rich Empire of India, all make-believe designations resulting from imperial British colonialism in a region of the world the ancient Greeks called Scythia and beyond].
Princess Yasodhara, Prince Siddhartha's wife
Sheherazade is the super smart wife of King Shahryar who saves herself, and ultimately all the women in the kingdom, from execution by recounting a continuous sequence of interlinked stories over the course of 1,001 nights.
Sheherazade is not the protagonist in the individual tales she narrates. Rather, she functions as the unifying narrative consciousness of the entire work of brilliance. She's the storyteller.
Through [the use of cliffhangers or] deliberate pacing, narrative suspense, and thematic selection, she gradually transforms King Shahryar from a ruler driven by misogyny and vengeance into a just and stable king. More
Monty Python: "Novel Writing" as a major stadium sport in England
This is an alternative? Refined literary pursuits?
(Dyynamo) Boxing not interesting? Of course, it's a brutal blood sport for savages. Instead, herewith is color commentary on the athletic exploits of British novelist Thomas Hardy as he attempts to write The Return of the Native before a large bank holiday crowd of lit hooligans going berserk in the stands.
Brainworms via Leon Lush, 8/3022; Seth Auberon, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Is Gen Z actually brain dead? (It's not looking good youths)
(Leon Lush) Gen Z is pulling out all the stops to make themselves look less good than they actually are. Maybe it's drugs, shyness, or being phone-schooled. But who needs knowledge anyway when we can just work on having tons of followers and TikTok views instead?
This is a continuation of the series "Ruin Your Life in 30 Seconds or Less," which is how Brainworms started.
👕 Merch: leonlush.com/shop.
🎶 The music used: leonlush.com/epidemic. (It's perfect for avoiding copyright issues).
(E! News) Daily Show host and comedian Trevor Noah cozies up to world-famous pop singer Dua Lipa amid Daily Show exit. Just one day before announcing his plans to leave "The Daily Show," comedian Trevor Noah sparks dating rumors with superstar Dua Lipa after an outing in New York City (E! News, Sept. 30, 2022)
(Entertainment Tonight) Inside Dua Lipa and Trevor Noah's "intimate" date (Source, Sept. 30, 2022) Dua Lipa and Trevor Noah were spotted out getting cozy and kissing on a date night in NYC on Wednesday.
Celebrities tried to warn us about beautiful vixen Dua Lipa
Years ago some American Buddhist teachers began to share a new mindfulness tool that offers in-the-trenches support for working with intense and difficult emotions.
Called RAIN (an acronym for the four steps of the process), it can be accessed in almost any place or situation. It directs our attention in a clear, systematic way that cuts through confusion and stress.
The steps give us somewhere to turn in a painful moment. And as we call on them more regularly, they strengthen our capacity to come home to our deepest truth. Like the clear sky and clean air after a cooling rain, this mindfulness practice brings a new openness and calm to our daily lives.
I have now taught RAIN to thousands of students, clients, and mental health professionals, adapting and expanding it into [True Refuge]. I’ve also made it a core practice in my own life. Here are the four steps of RAIN presented in the way I’ve found most helpful:
RRecognize what is happening
AAllow life to be just as it is
IInvestigate inner experience with kindness
NNon-Identification.
RAIN directly de-conditions the habitual ways in which we resist moment-to-moment experience. It doesn’t matter whether we resist “what is” by lashing out in anger, by having a cigarette, [by sex, drugs, rock 'n roll or rap], or by getting immersed in obsessive thinking.
Our attempt to control the life within and around us actually cuts us off from our own heart and from this living world. RAIN begins to undo these unconscious patterns as soon as we take the first step.
Recognize what is, accept that it is, investigate what's going on inside, and realize that there's no reason to identify with situations. More
Socialites and curmudgeons not only have different party demeanors, they may also have different brain structures, a new study suggests. But what came first — the incentive to charm or the bolstered brain anatomy — is still a matter of debate.
Forty-one randomly selected men filled out a questionnaire assessing their own tendency to, say, "make a warm personal connection." Those who reported being sociable and emotionally demonstrative also tended to have denser cell concentration in two brain structures, the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral striatum, said the study's head researcher Graham Murray of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The research was published in the May 20, 2009 issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.
Chicken or egg
Many studies have found correlations between the size of a particular brain structure and physical behavior, such as the classic finding that taxi drivers often have more developed hippocampi, structures associated with spatial memory. Whether the above-average geographic abilities existed before or only developed after the subjects became cabbies is unclear. The burgeoning field of social neuroscience is producing similar findings.
For example, the structural research by Murray and colleagues is backed by a recent study published in Nature Neuroscience and led by Michael Cohen. He showed that strong neuronal connections between the orbitofrontal cortex and striatum were also associated with social pleasure.
"Connectivity encourages growth of brain regions," Murray said, so taken together the studies suggest two causal relationships. A particular brain composition could create a warm personality, but experiencing social behavior could also create a social brain, he said. Most likely it is both nature and nurture acting in tandem, creating "a snowball effect," Murray theorized. Experience spurs brain growth, brain growth influences behavior, behavior affects experience and around we go.
Personality develops most rapidly during childhood and adolescence, Murray said, but traits are never completely fixed. Even in adulthood, he continued, "social experiences could have their effect by changing brain structures over time."
Key to Survival
The identified brain areas also respond to pleasures, such as food and sex, that are necessary for species survival. Over the course of evolution, socializing may have also become a critical need, Murray said. More>>
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