Randy Pausch sadly died on July 25, 2008 after leading a brief but powerful life. I think the legacy of Randy Pausch is for me in his life lessons: I've supplied 8, you can supply you own in comments… In no particular order, here they are:

MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team As many of you know, the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team (part of the MIT Media Lab) won the race to locate the DARPA Red Weather Balloon Challenge.    Their system was a reverse Ponzi scheme where those finding the...

Flickr Photo by Isabel Garconi Robert Putnam and I have an Op-Ed in today’s USA Today (12/10/09) summarizing our evidence and others’ on the serious social consequences of unemployment, both to the unemployed and residents in the surrounding...

The NY Times had an interesting piece yesterday on the health benefits of volunteering. They cite Stephen Post’s work, which I have discussed earlier, but also notes a 2002 Boston College study (Paul Arnstein et al.) and a California Buck Institute...

An interesting article in the Science Times section of the NY Times discusses research by developmental psychologist Michael Tomasello (appearing in Why We Cooperate). At 18 months of age, Tomasello finds that toddlers almost universally immediately...

It seems contradictory.  How can the lonely (who are largely outside of social networks) get their loneliness through social networks? It makes sense when you think of people’s movements in social networks over some period of time.  The lonely may...