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I was following the same yoga video I had followed more than 30 times in the past. Because I know the routine well, I usually have little trouble breathing rhythmically through the postures, feeling the subtleties of each movement, and sliding gently into a mind-body meditation.
This time, though, was drastically off. Not only did my mind wander, I was clumsy and confused. I did "Warrior 1" twice on the same side instead of switching legs. I lost my balance in eagle pose. And, at one point, looking up at the video from my standing split, I found myself two postures behind the leader.
The worst part wasn't my poor performance though; it was my attitude and mood. I felt stressed, annoyed, and anxious – hardly the outcome I was looking for from yoga.
The problem? I wasn't only doing yoga. I was watching the TV show Revolution on my iPad mini — perched next to my TV screen – at the same time.
It was an experiment that I started after a conversation with my mother. She and I were talking about her dinner plans and she mentioned she was going out with a couple she really enjoys. I asked what she enjoyed about them.
"They laugh a lot," she answered, "and I love that. People don't laugh so much anymore."
Her comment stuck with me. She's right: We don't laugh as much as we used to.
I thought a lot about it and arrived at a hypothesis I chose to test: It's not that we're depressed, it's that we're distracted. And laughter, it turns out, is not something that happens when we're distracted.
I've written about the productivity downside to multitasking in the past. As my yoga experience and countless studies show, we pay a steep price in efficiency for spreading our attention so thinly.
But my mother's observation points to a more nefarious consequence of multitasking: its emotional impact.
It's impossible to feel joy or pleasure when our attention is fractured. Anger, frustration, annoyance – sure. Those emotions rise to the surface easily. In fact, multitasking encourages them. But laughter? It's nearly impossible.
Why is this important? Does it really matter whether we're laughing more or less? What does this have to do with leadership?
Everything, it turns out. My yoga experiment wasn't the first I'd tried. Before that, I watched television while processing my credit card bill on an Excel spreadsheet — a seemingly mindless task that involves nothing more than dragging numbers from one cell to another. Not only did it take four times as long as when I did it undistracted, but I grew increasingly irritated as I worked. When someone walked into my office with a question, I growled.
That's a leadership issue.
Not laughing is a symptom — a lagging indicator — of an ill that's creating havoc in our lives and our organizations.
We aren't laughing anymore because we aren't fully present anymore. Physically we're in one place but mentally, we're all over the place. Think about some recent phone conversations you've had — and then consider what else you were doing at the same time. Were you surfing the web? Reading and deleting emails? Shooting off a text? Sorting through mail? Or maybe you were thinking about any number of problems — a renovation, a recent argument, a never-ending to-do list — unrelated to the topic at hand.
Unfortunately, being fully present in the moment has become a casualty of our too full and harried lives.
"But don't some people get intense pleasure from the challenge of focusing on more than one thing at a time?" a friend asked me when I shared this notion with her. "What about complex multi-dimensional activities, like doing a presentation?"
She's right. I love doing presentations. And when I do a presentation, I'm thinking about innumerable things at once — the content, my delivery, the energy in the room, my timing for a joke, that person in the front row who seems disgruntled, the amount of minutes I have left, etc.
But the reason I love the excitement of all those variables is precisely because they keep me laser-focused. I'm battle-ready, all my senses alert, prepared for anything. Yes, I'm holding a lot of things at once, but they're all related.
Complex multi-dimensional activities hold so much pleasure precisely because they require singular focus. Everything we're dealing with is connected. It's when we're focused simultaneously on things that are disconnected — like a conversation and an email — that we struggle.
Here's the good news: The solution is fun.
As an achievement-driven guy, I'd like to suggest a personal challenge: Try to increase the number of times you laugh in a day. I don't mean chuckle — that's not a high enough bar — I mean really laugh. Choose a number: 3? 8? 20? Then try to achieve it.
On the surface, this seems a little nuts. But think about it: We measure all sorts of things in organizations that supposedly drive results – why not laughter? At least until we get the hang of it again.
The interesting thing about laughter is that you can't force it. It just happens when the conditions are right. And the conditions are right when you're focused on what you're doing in the moment.
So how do we get our laughter numbers up? Create the conditions that make laughter more likely: Do one thing at a time. Focus on it entirely. If a distracting thought enters your mind and you're afraid of forgetting it, write it down for later when you can focus on it exclusively. Don't spread your attention beyond what's right in front of you right now.
We already know those things will make us more productive. It's nice to know they'll bring us joy and laughter too.

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With the help of a robotic frog, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin and Salisbury University have discovered that two wrong mating calls can make a right for female túngara frogs.
The "rather bizarre" result may be evidence not of a defect in the frog brain, but of how well frogs have evolved to extract meaning from noise, much the way humans have. The research, which was published last month in Science, may also provide insight into how complex traits evolve by hooking together much simpler traits.
When choosing a potential mate, female túngara frogs listen to the sounds of the male calls, which are based on a pattern of "whines" and "chucks." If visible, the sight of the male frogs inflating their vocal sacs adds to the appeal of the calls. It makes a whine more attractive, though still less attractive than a whine-chuck, and it makes a whine-chuck more attractive still.
In an innovative experiment, biologists Michael Ryan and Ryan Taylor played around with those visual and auditory signals. They took a recording of a basic whine, then added a robotic frog that inflated its vocal sac late. They ran a parallel experiment with a chuck that arrived late relative to the whine.
On their own neither the late vocal sac expansion or the sluggish chuck added to the sex appeal of the whine. In both cases it was as if the frog had just whined.
When the late cues were strung together, however, something extraordinary happened. The vocal sac "perceptually rescued" the chuck and bound it together with the first part of the whine-chuck call. The resulting signal was as attractive to the female túngara frogs as a well-timed "whine-chuck."
"It never would happen in nature, but it's evidence of how much jury-rigging there is in evolution, that the female can be tricked in this way," said Ryan, the Clark Hubbs Regents Professor of Zoology in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin.
Ryan compared the phenomenon to what's called a "continuity illusion" in humans. If loud enough white noise is played in between a pair of beeps, humans will begin to perceive the beeps as a continuous tone. It's not fully understood why this happens, but it's probably a byproduct of our brains' useful ability to filter out background noise.
Túngara frogs are challenged by an auditory world similar to what confronts humans in noisy environments (what's called the "cocktail party problem" by cognitive scientists). At breeding choruses there is a lot of noise and cross talk, with sounds and images of several males reaching the female at different times. The females need to extract meaningful information from all of that. Ryan said it's plausible the neural mechanisms that enable them to correctly parse these stimuli in nature are being hijacked by this artificial scenario.
"We need to be able to hook things together perceptually in unexpected ways to extract meaningful stimuli from a lot of noise," said Ryan. "So what we think is happening here is that the vocal sac, the visual cue, is working kind of like the white noise, giving perceptual continuity between these two sounds, binding the temporally displaced whine and chuck together."
Ryan said that although the frogs' aggressive search for meaning leaves them open to being tricked by clever researchers, it could also enable more flexibility in complex situations. He believes it may have a much longer-term evolutionary advantage as well.
"It's an example of how complex traits could emerge from simpler ones," he said. "In this case there's no obvious advantage to these two behaviors being hooked together in this way, but think of how you can take a muscle and move its insertion on the bone and have a great influence on speed. You didn't get the evolution for these bones and muscles all at the same time, but just by making a change or adding a muscle, now you change the functional coupling. You end up with something really complex, but it evolved in a really simple way. I think in this case we may be seeing an example of how that could happen."
R.C. Taylor is an associate professor of biology at Salisbury University in Maryland.


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Every American deserves access to quality, affordable health care. From cancer screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies to the latest breakthroughs in treatment, everyone should have access to the care that could prevent cancer and save their life. In addition, ensuring that low-income working families have access to affordable health insurance is proven to reduce overall health care costs.
We are working in every state and in Congress to expand health care options and protect existing laws that help patients get true access to the care they need.


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Kamikazeby Kyle Hall '00 |
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Edited entries from the blog Bronx Teacher: The Happiness and Horror of Teaching in New York City —by Kyle Hall '00 August 2007: Just past the porn shop...beyond the burned-out house...just after a gritty stretch of potholes and abandoned furniture and auto parts, with a seedy motel directly to the side of our new home, rises a jewel of a new school. The brick-and-glass structure is so new that a construction fence still surrounds the small campus. It's amazing to have such a gem as part of the New York City Public Schools. Plus, I finally have a projector screen! Last year I used a cast-off whiteboard propped up (usually by myself and a student volunteer) on two chairs. This is the farthest cry imaginable from my first year teaching in the Bronx. September 6: I feel bad for the kids I know who spend an hour and a half traveling to school. What would it have been like to take mass transit in New York City as a 14 or 15 year old? At that age I lived in a sublime little town where at least half the kids rode bicycles to school. The house my family lived in was on a sleepy street near the beach and no more than a mile from the school. October 11: I'm praying for the safety of our students in this God-forsaken neighborhood. Two of my best girls—both of whom passed the Regent's Exam in June half a year early—were jumped by six girls yesterday on their way to the train station. Luckily, a few of our boys were nearby and jumped in to help. The girls were not injured seriously, but I'm sure that psychological and emotional damage was done. I feel horrible about this and the evils that lurk around our school. It's almost incomprehensible how vile some of the kids in this area are. At the same time, it's remarkable how the vast majority of our kids have grown up in the Bronx but never resorted to the idiotic, devilish behavior of other kids who've grown up in similar surroundings. Thank God for the kids who actually have respect for life and the future. October 18: Kids are teachers, too. They can become very eloquent when speaking about topics that impassion them. One girl—who had serious attendance issues last year but has missed only a few days so far this year—spoke of how a couple years ago her older brother was grooming her to become "a Queen" in the Latin Kings "set." She went on to say how this became her goal, and she had assumed she would achieve this. But then her brother was involved with an attempted murder and went to prison. He's now three years into a five- or six-year sentence and told his sister that gang life is a waste. His sister is now a vociferous opponent of gang life. Another girl in class agreed strongly, as did other students. A couple girls were downright upset with the Latin Kings member we have in class, especially when he made a statement about some people "being made for gangs." It really stirred up the class. I was actually disappointed when the bell rang. October 26: I am aching after a meeting with a father who's just learned from me that his son is in the Latin Kings gang. This is a father who came to father-son video game night in the spring and now the kid is falling away. "When I was in high school I don't think I ever heard of anyone in my sphere of friendships being shot. This is a completely different school environment up here. It's often not for the faint of heart." November 19: My girlfriend, a guidance counselor in the Bronx, and I both have boys who like to show off card tricks. The kids just need attention. For many, they sure don't get it at home. One girl today called me over at the beginning of class and handed me a metal "Love Pink" keychain from Victoria's Secret. She said, "Give it to your girlfriend, Mista. She probably likes pink. But don't tell her you bought it." I didn't, and my girlfriend loved it. She just finished writing a thank you card to the student. November 22: Last week one female student of mine who lives in a dangerous housing project in the Bronx said 'one of (her) peoples' was shot and killed. A male student in the same class said his cousin was shot several times last week. When I was in high school I don't think I ever heard of anyone in my sphere of friendships being shot. This is a completely different school environment up here. It's often not for the faint of heart. December 3: Kamikaze: This may be an appropriate analogy to the life of a teacher. It was what we learned about watching Ken Burns' stunning new series The War, but I think it cuts both ways. During advisory period today, one girl was reading about causes of the Civil War. She was writing out a question for tomorrow's review session and asked, "What caused the Dred Lock Decision?" I told her she's spent too much time around people in the Bronx, many of whom do have dreadlocks. Then we reviewed the Dred Scott Decision. December 22: Yesterday was one of only a handful of times since I've been a teacher when I seriously wanted to fire a kid out the window. This occurred after a girl, who's been going downhill in all classes all year and whose father I just spoke with a few weeks ago, blew up on me. She shouted "f— this, f— that" at least a dozen times in the next few minutes. "What the f—?! I don't give a f—." She refused to leave. I shouted down the hall and a crew of people came to take her out. As she was leaving I told her firmly to never talk to me like that. She shouted a couple times, "I'm not f—in' afraid of you!" Later, one student gave me the book Charlie Wilson's War for Christmas. Another student gave me a beautiful beige-orange-blue tie with matching cufflinks, and a cloth tissue for the pocket. Both were very thoughtful gifts. It was touching—a positive memory for a day nearly ruined by the crazy hat-throwing girl. |


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Gaza Strip 20 January 2009
As a Gazan journalist who is devastated by the holocaust the Israel army is perpetrating against us, I find myself at loss. The list of horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians is endless and the crimes are countless.
Should I write about the 45 evacuees who were massacred in their refuge at the United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school? Should I write about the most horrifying crime when Red Cross personnel found four starving children who had spent four days with the dead bodies of their mothers and other relatives in the ruins of a house in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood?
Should I talk about the mass killing of the al-Dayaa family when 15 family members were killed when a "smart" bomb gently hit their five-story building?
What about the sadistic crime when the father of the al-Samuni family was executed before his wife and children? Or the carnage committed against the extended al-Samuni family when 29 members of the clan were concentrated in one house which was bombed and collapsed on top of them, killing them all?
These and so many other crimes have already been documented by Amnesty International and other human rights institutions. Many more are still untold stories. I can tell one story with my own words and my own camera — that of eight-year-old Louay Sobeh. Little Louay could not know what this war had in store for him or his family.
About a week ago Louay and his family fled their house in Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza. They were under heavy Israeli artillery fire as the Israeli army invaded the area at the outset of Israeli ground military operation. Sorrowfully, Louay started to narrate what he witnessed:
"Israeli shells started to rain down beside my house in northern Gaza. Rockets started to get closer to my house and many people were killed. My house got some shrapnel and part of rockets. Then, my grandmother and my family fled to Jabaliya where we sheltered in one of the [Untied Nations] schools. We stayed for three days where it was very very cold. When we fled our house in the night we didn't bring any luggage or clothes or food. My father, brother and other family members decided to go back to our house in the north to bring some clothes and food. We went early in the morning by car then all of a sudden people beside our car started to run left and right. I heard explosions and I felt as if I were flying in the sky. And I found myself in the hospital."
The Israeli bombing of Louay's father's car killed one of his brothers and injured others. The shocking fact is that Louay still doesn't know is that he lost his eyesight completely. He will never be able to see the light again! His grandmother was beside him trying to make him feel better. He still doesn't know that his brother was killed.
Before I left his room Louay told me, "I hope you visit me again and you will go with me to take footage and photos of the place where the car was hit. I will also make a scene for you about how I flew. But I need you to help me recover quickly so I can go to school again and play with some of my friends. I don't know if they are alive or not."
I was shocked by his talent and affected by his words. It's very brutal when a child like Louay becomes a victim for no reason. There must be a way for Louay and all the children of Palestine to have peace and rest, instead of the fire and hell they have witnessed.
Louay is one of the lucky ones: he is expected to be taken to Saudi Arabia to receive medical treatment sponsored by the Saudi king. For too many children such aid is too late and it still won't bring the light back to Louay's eyes.
Sameh A. Habeeb is a photojournalist, humanitarian and peace
activist based in Gaza, Palestine. He writes for several news websites on a freelance basis.
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Journal Article
Pachamuthu K, Swetha C, Basu D, Das S, Singh I, Sundar VHari, Sujith TN, Shivaprasad PV.
2021. Rice-specific Argonaute 17 controls reproductive growth and yield-associated phenotypes.. Plant Mol Biol. 105(1-2):99-114.
Jha V, Narjala A, Basu D, Sujith TN, Pachamuthu K, Chenna S, Nair A, Shivaprasad PV.
2021. Essential role of γ-clade RNA-dependent RNA polymerases in rice development and yield-related traits is linked to their atypical polymerase activities regulating specific genomic regions.. New Phytol.
Tirumalai V, Narjala A, Swetha C, G Sundar VHari, Sujith TN, Shivaprasad PV.
2022. Cultivar-specific miRNA-mediated RNA silencing in grapes.. Planta. 256(1):17.