![]() My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. “Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. In 1778, Volta was appointed the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a position which he held for the next 40 years.Ībout a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”: He also built on the research of Benjamin Franklin by discovering how to ignite methane gas with a spark. There, he popularized the electrophorus, a tabletop device that could be used to generate static electricity. Volta was born in Como, a moderately-sized town in northern Italy, and became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como when he was 29. On either side of the battery, the Doodle shows the formulas for zinc and sulfuric acid. When the terminals were connected, the zinc and the acid chemically reacted with one another and caused an electric current to flow. Volta’s battery was constructed of zinc and copper electrodes, with sulfuric acid between them. In the upper-left and upper-right corners of the Doodle are the alchemical symbols for zinc and copper. Volta called a “voltaic pile” charging, and lighting up the Google logo in the process. The Doodle shows an old-fashioned battery – or what Mr. Wednesday’s Google Doodle pays homage to the inventor of one of the most crucial components of modern technology: the battery.Īlessandro Volta, an Italian physicist born in 1745, spent years investigating electricity before he created the precursor to what now powers our smart phones, our laptops, our tablets, and (in some cases) our cars. That is an awesome responsibility and a revolutionary opportunity. ![]() Even when the world is unkind, we can be unmoved in our determination to love, to build, to seek credible hope. ![]() Never to excuse or ignore cruelty or crime, but to recognize that how we view the world shapes the world. What is the media’s responsibility?Author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton once said of the Monitor, “It gives no shrift to any belief in the irredeemable wickedness of man, nor in the futility of human endeavor.”In addition to reporting acts of kindness, perhaps a next step is to see the world through a lens of kindness. ![]() But can this elevation only happen with stories of kindness? Must the rest of the news abandon us to despair?The world is asking us to consider that question deeply. She defined kindness and heroism as “moral beauty,” which “triggers ‘elevation’ – a positive and uplifting feeling” that “acts as an emotional reset button, replacing feelings of cynicism with hope, love and optimism.”The study suggested this happens when one watches a news story about kindness after watching ones about bombings, cruelty, and violence. They support “the belief that the world and people in it are good.” And they provide “relief to the pain we experience when we see others suffering.”It was her fourth point that stuck with me. A week ago, a British researcher published an article titled “Stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of looking at bad news.” As you might imagine, I was intrigued.Kathryn Buchanan of the University of Essex shared four main takeaways from her research: Stories of kindness remind us of our shared values. ![]()
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