...and there was plenty to laugh at in this article. Looks like neuroscientist John Cacioppo is gonna be able to buy lots of happiness if his book sells well enough. Someone ought to compare and contrast what we call happiness in our modern urban civilization and what is happiness in pre-civilized societies with an eye towards seeing if there isn't some part of the brain shrivelling up due to lack of stimulation that is relevant to the last few hundred thousand years of human selective pressures. I'd say that if there is something apparent, then it's our utter disconnect from the lifestyles we are adapted to lead through our evolution which included a focus on the natural beauty of ripe fruit hanging and the other features in a natural world and a little less on our preoccupation with what the other monkeys in our colony of cubicles are doing...or thinking..or thinking about doing.

Ah the thought of a santa, red in tooth and claw, bringing a large skin filled with the delicacies of a fresh kill. That will bring the gang together and reinforce bonding.

Not to change the subject but if you replace the word "economists" with the word "climatologists" you might understand why creating yet another complex finacial apparatus such as cap and trade for CO2 that will administer tens of trillions of dollas to benefit all of us leaves me hoping that there are influential people and forces in the new administration who don't agree with the witless summations of "the science is in" or "the debate is over".

I was expecting to read this thinking I'd be saying "ah ha! I wish I was rich enough to be cheated by Madoff" but this story was very touching and I have more sympathy for people like the author now. So, thank you for that.

It also brings to mind something else where she said "we believe in wind power but we invest in oil" and I thought to myself "what other multi-trillion dollar finacial arragement in which so many smart and dependable people are placing their faith without really understanding how it works, except that financial experts say so" is currently being suggested as a wonderful solution for our future problems? How about that "cap and trade" thing. I don't believe that global climate change is a hoax. I fully believe that climate changes even if I don't fully understand how the correlation of human produced CO2 and some apparently moderate and historically understandable warming spells disaster, I do want to see us move to clean energy and stop polluting, but really, the fear and alarm and the failure to be realistic about warming (why no examples of how warming will mean fewer people die of the cold? or Where's the solution to malaria that we need, not simply confining to the poor of the tropics?) does not seem to warrant such an expensive and complex investment program when application of a few intelligent and diligently practiced remedies could get us the same degree of cooling. Growing forests, and sequestering organic material and painting our cities roofs white to alleviate the urban heat contribution should not cost tens of trillions...and the money saved could then actually be used by the UN to address the real problems people face right now.

Hang in there, Geneen. If I run into you and you need some help, you can bet I will do what I can. Cheers.

Climate change may explain the decline in salmon fisheries...or not, and while I know everything lately has been blamed on global warming as a surrogate phrase for "our ecological sins", how can anyone think that our incredible abuse of the oceans, the shortsighted overharvesting, the run-off, the dams,the dumping not be the primary "driver" in that ecological mess...but no, the first thing that comes to mind is global warming. Has reason flown out the window along with common sense?

It's ironic, isn't it, that we form our opinion on how screwed up the world is in general and the prez'nut in particular based on the views we get of them as provided largely by the same crapulous content providers we condemn as being guilty of producing drivel worthy only of those for whom a productive life requiring diligence, intelligence and wisdom is so unlikely or worse, meaningless.

Next time we spot someone talking to a no parking sign, we might wonder if it isn't a better dialogue than the one we're paying for on cable and that is being spoon fed to us by the generous corporate sponsors and advertisers, who are indeed, gettin' fat and having a good time.

I loved Mann's "1491" and have recommended it to many and those that do read it have come away with a new appreciation and a questioning mind regarding long held notions that are seemingly foundational to our understanding of our history and the natural world.

Interestingly, Mann occasionally answers readers questions on his Amazon forum site and there have been some interesting ones too.

While I havent read the book on the bronze age horse cultures your suggestion certainly whets my appetite.

And if I may, allow me to predict one book that might make this list next year; Richard Firestone's "Cycles of Cosmic Catasrophe" which explores a topic which has been making some interesting waves lately; the extinction of the megafuana at the end of the Pleistocene the climate change that followed it pointing to a meteor or comet impact; which suggests that in truth, the greatest threat to civilization isn't a bit of warming and rising sealevels but something far more devastating. A warning, while the book is written in a capable amalgam of literary journalism and scientific treatise, the title cover-art is really bad, as if a clumsy title weren't enough of a barrier. History, it ain't what it used to be.