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The letter was organized by the legislative arm of Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), a Cambridge-based grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to amplifying women's voices in national security, disarmament, and anti-militarization campaigns. Signed by 125 female and male state legislators, the letter has the backing of groups including the Arms Control Association, Global Zero, National Priorities Project, Peace Action, and Win Without War. more »

Employees Entering Government: Individuals who join the executive branch may be required to take actions, either before becoming an employee or shortly thereafter, in order to comply with ethics laws and regulations concerning conflicting financial interests and impartiality. Hearings to examine the nomination of Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, to be Attorney General, Department of Justice will begin on Tuesday this week. more »

The new study shows that dogs will leave out irrelevant actions when there is a more efficient way to solve a problem, even when a human repeatedly demonstrates these actions. "Although dogs are highly social animals, they draw the line at copying irrelevant actions," said Angie Johnston, Yale Ph.D. student and lead author on the study. "Dogs are surprisingly human-like in their ability to learn from social cues, such as pointing, so we were surprised to find that dogs ignored the human demonstrator and learned how to solve the puzzle on their own."    Dogs are less likely to follow bad advice than children, according to a new study conducted at the Canine Cognition Center at Yale. Yale Prof. Laurie Santos found that, in contrast to children, dogs only copy a human’s actions if they are absolute… more »

Julia Sneden wrote: Anyone who has ever hand-scrubbed a damask napkin across a washboard, rinsed it, set it in the sun to bleach, hung it on the line to dry, dampened it before ironing, and then ironed and folded it and placed it back in the drawer, is not about to take on the task more often than necessary. Unless there had been an utter disaster like a spill of grape juice, or an emergency napkin thrown on spilled gravy to keep it from flowing over the edge of the table, or an uncle who had had a bit too much Scotch and thoughtlessly blew his nose on the best double damask, we refolded our napkins at meal's end and placed them neatly in napkin rings that were clearly ours, each one different from anyone else's.   more »