The Bible is the biggest bestseller in history. But after that, what else has topped the charts? Mao's "Little Red Book" comes in at number two and then the surprises begin. While religion dominates the first half of the list, the rest is mostly fantasy. Does this list tell us anything about ourselves as human beings? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

(Data from HowStuffWorks)

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You're probably thinking that I must be referring to stay-at-home dads, as they seem to get the most media attention these days; but while I highly value their contribution to the evolving role of fatherhood, they are not who I am talking about here.

My bet is that the dads who are going to make or break involved fatherhood are: working dads.

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There's a wonderful surge that's happening in the world of mindfulness right now and its movement into the schools with children. When I saw this video of what they are doing in an elementary school in Oakland, California I was blown away.

One of the kids said:

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Mark Jung-Beeman is a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University, and he has studied what happens inside the brain when people have an insight. He was quoted in a recent New Yorker article, saying: "If you want to encourage insights, then you've got to also encourage people to relax." The article notes that "Jung-Beeman's latest paper investigates why people who are in a good mood are so much better at solving insight puzzles."

What Jung-Beeman has discovered is that insight and creative solutions can be inhibited or blocked by being overly focused. Instead, what is often needed for insight is to focus on not focusing. The article continues, "As Jung-Beeman and Kounios [a cognitive neuroscientist at Drexel University] see it, the insight process is an act of cognitive deliberation -- the brain must be focused on the task at hand -- transformed by accidental, serendipitous connections. We must concentrate, but we must concentrate on letting the mind wander."

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Narrative Magazine: To celebrate our new iPhone and iPad application, which brings our entire literary library to readers' fingertips for free, we've created a genre of our own: the iStory, a short dramatic narrative perfect for reading on-screen. Here are three examples from literary greats able to capture entire worlds in 150 words or less.

Idolatry

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I sat down with the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at his office in Ramallah for aPalestine Note exclusive interview.

Ramallah - For three years, Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister in the West Bank Palestinian Authority (PA), has been a focal point for Mideast debate.

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There's still a lot people out there who are against gay marriage, violently against it. They run around trying to give gay people self-help books on how to tone down the gay, or cover up the gay, or channel the gay into athletics or community service. And I'm sure that all works like a charm. "Yeah, he used to be gay but now he's a hell of a softball player!" or "Instead of all the gay sex, he's been on the tennis court workin' on his backhand."

So I have the answer. I think we should make the homophobes a deal. Everyone who wants to be anti-gay and lesbian, you go ahead and do that, BUT we're taking away EVERYTHING from your life that is gay or gay-friendly or gay-like or gay-inspired or bisexual. You're not allowed near it. So that means no more Ellen Degeneres Show or Oprah or Michael Jackson music, Elton John, Lady Gaga or Madonna. No more Rosie O'Donnell anything or Professional Wrestling. No more musicals or Dancing With The Stars, no more college fraternities, guys night out, or KISS albums - well, at least the drummer from KISS. No more lifting weights at the gym with the other guys spotting you while you're sweating in a low-cut torn t-shirt. No more movies starring Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, The Rock, or that werewolf from the Twilight movies. And no more adults watching god damn Twilight movies! No more Serena Williams, WNBA, or parades of any of kind. No more watching college girls make out with each other or dance together or jump up and down in wet t-shirt contests together. Obviously no more gay weddings but also no more straight weddings. Nothing's gayer than a straight wedding! (Come on, it's men crying and singing YMCA.) No more field hockey for women or yoga for men. No more celebrating Halloween or getting haircuts. (Haircuts are so gay.) No more slow motion during football games. And no more shaving your balls - I don't care if you have a forest down there that itches like bestiality with a porcupine. Too bad! You shoulda thought of that when you were hating gays.

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"What typeface do you want?"

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A Conversation With Marc Cohn

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House Republicans late Thursday were able to corral enough votes to defeat a bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to those sickened by toxins resulting from the 9/11 attacks.

In the process, they set off a host of fiery speeches and denunciations from their Democratic colleagues and produced a veritable YouTube moment from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y), whose district includes many of the affected.

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The billionaire brothers from Dallas who were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with orchestrating a massive securities fraud scheme that netted them $550 million are well-known philanthropists and fundraisers for conservative politicians.

Charles and Samuel Wyly, along with their wives, have donated $2.5 million to more than 200 Republican candidates and committees over the past 20 years, including over $1.3 million to the Republican National Committee, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

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The steady erosion of American productivity and viability may not just be unfortunate happenstance or a natural socioeconomic evolution, but a premeditated, consolidated effort to reap reward from fomenting failure.

And, as an interesting bit of collateral damage, people no longer have any faith in someone or something unless there's money involved, hence the curiously adhesive qualities of the moronic quasi libertarian meme of preferring the unregulated shenanigans of the private sector over a democratically elected and regulated government. And here's where those people who have been able to free themselves from the 24-hour-a-day opiate known as The Media slap themselves in their heads and say "Sheesh!"

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July 30, 2010 - Today's most interesting stories in technology, media and entertainment:

YouTube's 15 Minutes of Fame --Starting today, YouTube will allow users to upload videos up to 15-minutes in length, up 50 percent from the previous 10-minute limit. Not only was extending the time the number one request from users, but YouTube also believes they've taken significant measures to protect copywriten videos from being uploaded.

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Today, The Humane Society of the United States released new information, in a telephone press conference with reporters, about gruesome animal crush videos that have made a comeback since the federal courts overturned the 1999 law Congress passed to ban their production and sale. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court declared this federal anti-cruelty law invalid and unconstitutional, creating an opening for peddlers of this smut to get back into this business.

Last week, at the urging of The HSUS and in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling, the House passed legislation by a vote of 416-3 to fill the gap in the law and to reinstate a narrowly tailored federal prohibition on this disgusting commerce. Today, U.S. Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the co-authors of H.R. 5566, joined me in a call to urge the U.S. Senate to take up the House legislation and ban interstate and foreign commerce in these obscene animal "crush" videos before the 111th Congress concludes its work.

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I first met Adnan Tikvesa back in December when I spoke at a symposium on human rights and Islam at the Al-Farooq mosque in Atlanta.

The focus of my talk was the fundamental rights and liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, including every person's right to due process of law.

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This post originally appeared on the World Development Report 2011 blog on January 5, 2010.

Forward Operating Base Delhi, Garmsir District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan--December 7

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