Vincent Pieribone is an Associate Professor at Yale University. He's also a passionate scientist working on new ways to help paraplegics move their arms and legs by bypassing the damage and having a computer do the work. While Pieribone is optimistic about the future of brain imaging advancements, he worries that we aren't moving quickly enough to understand every aspect of the brain. To him, more effort was put into creating the iPod than unlocking the secrets of the brain.

Why aren't more intelligent people going into science these days? Besides there being a problem with science education in the U.S., Pieribone thinks the public often misperceives the field entirely. "I got a lot of people who show up in the lab and they think every day is going to be like Mr. Spock running around the deck of the Enterprise making huge discoveries and stuff.  And it’s a little slow.  It’s a lot of pie petting and you know, things don’t work and like any job, it’s really like any job," he says. 

More money for iPods than brain research? This user says thank goodness Bioness is here now (but does wonder what else there could be).

I think every organization, conference, city, or profession should periodically sponsor their own version of an Olympics-style competition for the following reasons:

Jeffrey Cufaude challenges us all to find our own Olympics. Click through to see why he thinks it's a sensible idea, then spend some time thinking about how and where you could be an Olympian. Looking for personal responsibility in the Olympics reminds me of this favorite thought from Michael Gelb

The best communicators, motivators, and leaders take a different approach. They view competition in accordance with the original Olympic ideal--a javelin thrower throws his best to honor the gods, expressing the glory of humanity and inspiring his opponent to greater achievement. The opponent responds by mustering his best aiming to spur his competitor to further glory. Competition becomes a creative process, energizing the-ending quest for excellence.

Karen Armstrong presents a bold and inspiring overview of compassion and reverence for life as ideals that can save the planet. Here is an excerpt on compassion as an essential practice of the religions that developed during the Axial Age from 800 - 2000 BCE.

"What mattered was not what you believed but how you behaved. Religion was about doing things that changed you at a profound level.

Karen Armstrong has come to my attention in a big way recently. Click through for a thought-provoking excerpt.

So, if you see your job not as chief strategy officer and the guy who has all the ideas, but rather the guy who is obsessed with enabling employees to create value, I think you will succeed. That’s a leadership style that evolved from my own understanding of the fact that I’m not the greatest and brightest leader born. My job is to make sure everybody is enabled to do what they do well. This is part of our “Employees First” philosophy.

From an interview with Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies. This is an attitude I wish I would have experienced more when I was working and I wish I saw more manifest in my Toastmasters district. I think the whole interview is well worth clicking through to read. Nayar sounds like the best kind of maverick. I'd like to learn more about him and his company.