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I knew it.  After my son was born I stopped working.  I felt lonely and depressed and put it down to being home all day with a needy baby, locked in the house (except for my morning run, which, thankfully, he didn't mind accompanying me on, in the jogger stroller -- not that he had any choice!). But over time, as he got more independent, learned to crawl, then walk, then amuse himself with Duplos and Legos, I was still depressed. It wasn't post-partum depression (well, maybe a little).  But it was because I had lost who I was. Before Phillip, and even after, my work was my life.  If I wasn't working, I didn't feel productive.  Or, worth anything.  Yes, the miracle of birth, yah, yah, yah, and I'd waited many heartbreaking years for this child.  But it just wasn't enough. Yesterday, in an op-ed in the Sunday Review, I finally saw why.  Writing for The New York Times, Stephanie Coontz revealed that studies have shown that women who stay at home report more s

Under the category of hard to believe -- and harder to take -- comes a story in The New York Times today that says that computers are now grading essays, and if you get a bad grade, they'll help you do it again and get a better one. Now, this is certainly not for me!  As someone who can hardly bear an editor's comments, I don't know how I'd feel about having a computer judge my writing. It's not just computer software that crunches numbers, its stuff that uses artificial intelligence.  But  I still fail to see how a computer can remotely judge writing, and, even more important, foster creativity. Some if I like, like being able to just push send and your essay goes to the computer.  The really weird thing is that your grade comes back almost immediately, along with help to make the next draft better.  Only, it wasn't a draft.  It was your final effort. But anyway. . . John Markoff notes that computers have been used for some time to grade multiple-choic

Next time you have cramps, pull out your smartphone.  A new Web-based program is helping women to combat chronic pain.  It's not really done with smoke and mirrors, but sort of.  The program pairs therapists with women constantly in pain for one face-to-face session,  then having them document their pain, and their feelings about it, for personalized feedback from the therapist, according to a story at fiercemobilehealthcare.com. Users rate their pain on a scale from 0 to 52, with 52, of course, being wrenching (I assume). Not sure how much this really helps but since a mind-body connection has been proven, guess it couldn't hurt. While only women were being studied, it could certainly be used by men, too.  http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/story/smartphone-interventions-can-help-manage-chronic-pain-study-says/2013-02-05