_A new diagnostic tool for depression?
"Activity patterns in BA-32 [Brodmann area 32] identified depressed subjects...Brain activity in response to viewing one's mother may be diagnostic of depression. Functional magnetic resonance imaging using personalized paradigms has the potential to provide objective assessments, even when behavioral measures are not informative. Further, fMRI based diagnostic algorithms may enhance our understanding of the neural mechanisms of depression by identifying distinctive neural features of the illness. Abstract. Full study. Citation: Can Depression be Diagnosed by Response to Mother's Face? A Personalized Attachment-Based Paradigm for Diagnostic fMRI. PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e27253. Epub 2011 Dec 13.

_Best Idea Ever
As of Dec. 22, 2011, more than 81,000 people had affirmed the Charter for Compassion as the best idea humanity has ever had. More.

An Excerpt:
"It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion."